When the Hierarchy tab is available

The Hierarchy tab is not visible when the processing activity is in New state. You must move the processing activity to Discover state before the tab appears. When a processing activity is first moved to Discover state, the Hierarchy tab appears with no data. No relationships exist until you add them.

Key concepts

Primary record

The processing activity in the context of which you are creating or viewing the relationship. The primary record is always the processing activity you currently have open. When you add a relationship, the Primary Record field is pre-filled with this processing activity and cannot be changed.

Primary node

The upstream node in a relationship. When only one node has been added to the hierarchy, the primary node is the same as the primary record. Once more nodes are added, the primary node is the upstream node in a given relationship between two connected nodes — it is not always the primary record itself.

Related node

The node connected to the primary node by a relationship. The related node is the downstream node in that relationship.

Parent node and child node

The parent node is the node that sends data. The child node is the node that receives data. Which node becomes the parent and which becomes the child is determined by the relationship type you select when creating the relationship.

Relationship type

Defines how the primary node is connected to the related node. Each relationship type includes a description that explains the direction of data flow and determines which node becomes the parent (source) and which becomes the child (target).

Related node type

The type of entity you are connecting as a related node. Related nodes can be processing activities, entities, business processes, business applications, vendors, companies, or other GRC-related record types.

View lineage map

The Lineage Map button in the Hierarchy tab opens a graphical view of all the nodes and relationships connected to the current processing activity. You can use the Lineage Map to visualize data flows, navigate between connected nodes, and edit or delete relationships.

The Lineage Map not only displays the nodes directly linked to the current processing activity, but also the nodes connected to those nodes. You can trace the entire chain of data transfer across all levels from a single view.

Key relationships

A key relationship identifies which relationships in the data lineage hierarchy are important in the context of a specific primary record. Not all relationships in a hierarchy need to be marked as key. Key relationship status is a way to flag the relationships that matter most to the processing activity you currently have open.

Key relationship is always defined relative to the primary record. The same relationship between two nodes can be key in the context of one processing activity and not key in the context of another.

You can use the Key Relationships toggle in the Lineage Map to show only the nodes and connections marked as key for the current primary record. Nodes that exist in the hierarchy but are not marked as key are hidden when the toggle is enabled.

Methods to create data lineage

You can create a data lineage from the Hierarchy tab of a processing activity. For more information see, Create a data lineage for a processing activity.

Information displayed on the Hierarchy tab

After a relationship is created, the Hierarchy tab list displays the following columns:

Primary node

The upstream node in the relationship. This is the node from which data flows.

Relationship

The relationship type that defines how the primary node is connected to the related node, such as Sends data to, Contains, or Depends on.

Related to

The downstream node in the relationship. This is the node to which data flows.

Key relationship

Indicates whether the relationship is marked as key in the context of the current processing activity.

Description

A description of the relationship.