Configure record interdependencies

Link two or more records in your ​ValidMind inventory together. Dependencies are useful to understand how a record is affected by or affects other records in your inventory.

Prerequisites

• You are logged in to ValidMind.
• There are two or more records registered in the inventory.¹
• You are the record owner² for the record you want to set interdependencies for, a Developer, or assigned another role with sufficient permissions to perform the tasks in this guide.³

¹ Register records in the inventory

² Manage inventory record stakeholders

³ Manage permissions

View interdependencies

1. In the left sidebar, click Inventory.

2. Select the type of {Record} you want to view interdependencies for by clicking on {Record} Inventory.⁴

3. Select a record or find your record by applying a filter or searching for it.⁵

4. On the record details page, click the Interdependencies tab to view an interactive flowchart:

   • The currently viewed record is highlighted with a blinking animation.
   • Click and drag to change what area is displayed on the flowchart.
   • To zoom in and out, use your mouse scroll button or zoom trackpad gesture.
   • Turn on Display Artifacts for an artifact type to add that type’s artifacts to the flowchart.
   • When a record-to-record link has a dependency type,⁶ the connecting line is labeled with it, for example Data Source (Upstream).

5. Below the flowchart, the Interdependencies table lists the same linked records and artifacts as the flowchart, with a Type column showing the record type or artifact type of each row:

   • Click Manage Columns to add any core, custom, or stakeholder field of the linked records or artifacts. Columns are labeled Record: or Artifact: so the same field on each side stays distinct, and a column that does not apply to a row shows a gray dash.
   • Add the Dependency Type column to show the type assigned to each record-to-record link.
   • Save a combination of columns and displayed artifact types as a view, for yourself or shared with your organization, the same way you save inventory views.⁷

⁴ Manage inventory record types

⁵ Working with the inventory

⁶ Define dependency types

⁷ Working with the inventory

View dependencies across the inventory

To see dependencies without opening each record, add the Upstream Record IDs and Downstream Record IDs columns to the inventory listing with Manage Columns.⁸ Each shows the comma-delimited IDs of the record’s direct dependencies, kept in sync automatically when a dependency is added or removed. Records you do not have access to are left out of the list.

⁸ Customize inventory layout

• Filter the listing by these columns with the in or not in operators to find every record that has a specific record upstream or downstream, for example Upstream Record IDs in M_5475. Matching is on the exact ID.
• Both columns are included in the inventory CSV export⁹ and in scheduled data exports¹⁰ when selected.
• In Analytics, the Inventory Record - Dependencies dataset has one row per dependency, so you can chart which records are most depended on. Group or filter by Dependency Direction so each relationship is counted once.¹¹

⁹ Export inventory

¹⁰ Configure data exports

¹¹ Manage custom reports

Edit interdependencies

1. In the left sidebar, click Inventory.

2. Select the type of {Record} you want to edit interdependencies for by clicking on {Record} Inventory.¹²

3. Select a record or find your record by applying a filter or searching for it.¹³

4. On the record details page, click the Interdependencies tab.

5. Click Manage Dependencies to open up the interdependencies detail menu.

6. Select either the Upstream or Downstream tab:

   • Upstream — Provides input or intermediate results to another record.
   • Downstream — Receives input and typically performs further processing, predictions, or actions based on that input.

   You can swap between the Upstream or Downstream tabs to set both interdependency types at once.

7. On your list of related records from the inventory, add or remove interdependencies as desired:

   • Add — Select the checkbox for any records that are either upstream or downstream dependent on the current record.
   • Remove — Unselect the checkbox for any records previously linked as upstream or downstream dependent on the current record.

   Use the search box or Filter to narrow the list with the same rule builder as the inventory listing. The list loads one page at a time; selections you make on one page are kept as you move to another.

8. (Optional) For each selected record, choose a Dependency Type from the list your organization has defined.¹⁴ If your organization requires a dependency type on every link, Save stays unavailable until every newly selected record has one.

9. Click Save to apply your changes.

¹² Manage inventory record types

¹³ Working with the inventory

¹⁴ Define dependency types

Once applied, interdependencies will populate on all linked records.

Define dependency types

Dependency types describe what kind of relationship a record-to-record link is, such as a data source or a challenger model. They appear on the flowchart, in the Interdependencies table, and as a choice in Manage Dependencies.

To define dependency types, you must be a Customer Admin or assigned another role with sufficient permissions.¹⁵

¹⁵ Manage permissions

1. In the left sidebar, click Settings.

2. Under Inventory, select Interdependencies.

3. Add, rename, or delete dependency types as needed. Deleting a type keeps the links that used it and removes the label from them.

4. (Optional) Select Require a dependency type on every link so that new links cannot be saved without one. Links saved before the requirement stay valid.