Hello ​@geoffrey.lowney, 

If I am understanding correctly, the reason that the new factsheets are archived after deleting a transformation is because they do not exist fully in your workspace until you execute the transformation itself.

This is to enable testing of various scenarios without actually impacting the count or relations/data of your current architecture. For example, if you plan to add an application, you’d likely prefer to visualize the ending impact of that application on your tech landscape before having it count towards your LeanIX application tier. 

The referenced factsheets will not be affected as they exist outside of the transformation itself. 

I hope this helps. 

Beau

​@Beau Nelson, thanks for the reply, but I am not sure you understood the scenario I am trying to describe.

I am not using the Transformation to create the target fact sheet (in fact, I don’t see that Transformations can create fact sheets). I am using the Transformation to set a field or relation on the fact sheet (at the time when the Transformation is executed.

Instead, at the point in setting up the Transformation where it asks me to selecte the target fact sheet, I am using “on the fly” creation, where I type in the name of a fact sheet that does not yet exist and then click “Create fact sheet name]” which causes the fact sheet to be created instantly on-the-fly. In another window, I can open the fact sheet, make changes to the fact sheet, relate the fact sheet to other fact sheets, etc.

For testing I only made a minor change to the fact sheet description, and when I went back and deleted the Transformation the target fact sheet was archived (and reloading the other window showed a message at the top saying the fact sheet was now archived).

I don’t necessarily mind that the fact sheet is being archived, but I would not want users to spend a bunch of time making changes to the target fact sheet only for it to be archived when someone deletes the transformation (which they may do only because the transformation was setup incorrectly or that project was going to be changed, and not because there was anything wrong with the target fact sheet that just happened to be created on-the-fly while the transformation was being setup). So I want to be able to explain to users the exact scenarios and rules around when deleting a transformation might lead to a fact sheet being archived.

Thanks

When you create an application through the transformation, but do not execute that transformation, then the application is actually created with Transformation Status set to “planned”. This is a hidden field on the application fact sheet and is the reason that such applications do not count towards licencing. I believe this is also the reason the application is archived if the transformation is deleted. This functionality is by design and I’m not sure there is really anything you could do to change it other than avoid creating applications in this way.

For what it’s worth, I have found that often when we are investigating applications, I actually want to start capturing information before an initiative and transformations have even been defined. This does mean that such applications count towards my licence total and so I have to be diligent about archiving them manually if the sourcing doesn’t go ahead, I do use transformations for making other change to fact sheets and relationships, just not for application creation.

​@Graham Howe, I don’t think that is correct in my examples. My target fact sheet is not an Application (its an IT Component), so there are no licensing requirements.

I also am not suggesting that people should be waiting to create fact sheets until they are creating transformations (this all came up as I was testing some behavior for a short training I was giving to some other architects on how to use transformations). And its not like all the data in the system is perfect, so sometimes someone may realize they needed a fact sheet as they are setting up a transformation. In addition, in some cases it can make sense that the first time someone realized they are going to need a new fact sheet (in the future) is as they are thinking about their future transformations.

I am simply trying to understand the actual technical details of how this all works so we can avoid problems in those situations where someone does create a fact sheet as they are creating a transformation (regardless of whether that was the best thing to be doing or not).

In one example today, I create an IT Component fact sheet on the fly during setup of a test transformation, and then I went to that fact sheet and changed the lifecycle dates, added a relation to a Provider, and made other small changes. When I then deleted the transformation I still saw the IT Component get archived with the comment “Transformation: Unused fact sheet removed.”

This now feels like a bug, or at least very undesirable behavior, since by that point I had related it to other fact sheets, changed the lifecycle, etc. I am not aware of other cases where creating a target fact sheet on-the-fly and then deleting the source results in the target being archived. For example, I opened an IT Component, and related it to a new Provider which I created using on-the-fly creation. When I then archived the IT Component I did not see the Provider get magically archived as unused (even though at that point it had no data or relations and was in muy opinion more “unused” than the auto-archived IT Component from my ealier test).

Just FYI for anyone interested. I reached out to LeanIX directly to ask about this, and to explain my concerns. Not surprisingly, I was told:

As the Community responded, the Target FS for any Transformation is a “planned” entity.  Even with updates to the FS, it will only persist as long as the Transformation remains.  The deletion of the Transformation will cause the archive of the Target FS.

This is expected behavior.

More importantly to me, I was also told:

We spoke to the Engineering and Product teams about this issue.

There are 2 areas which need to be addressed: 1. There is no way to make a distinction today between a Fact Sheet created on the fly (as the customer said to relate a Provider to an IT component) and a Fact Sheet generated as a result of a transformation. And 2. When a transformation is deleted, the user has no understanding of its implications when it comes to a Fact Sheet and all the information filled out there. So having a way to notify or alert the user about the implications of Delete Transformation Action , is something which could help to build confidence on the action. 

Product has acknowledged and accepted this item for review and future feature updates. While not technically a bug, they do understand that the functionality could be improved by your suggestion.