Best Practices on object custom attributes with Clarity

Products

• Clarity PPM On Premise
• Clarity PPM SaaS

Issue/Introduction

Looking to add many custom attributes to investment and project and they may be over 100. What are the best practices on adding custom attributes on an object in Clarity? 

Environment

All Supported Clarity Releases

Resolution

Best Practices:

• Keep a list with all custom attributes on a given object, where and how they are used and whether they are added to Reports, and which reports
• Always keep the number of custom attributes on a given object under 100
• This is required for optimal performance in the application
• Always keep the custom attributes current, once you no longer use a custom attribute, remove it from Reports, deactivate it from DWH, delete from any portlets, run the job and then delete it in Studio

New Additions:

• If you are about to add a few dozens of attributes and looking to see how to proceed:
• Create a list in a spreadsheet and consider which attributes need to be added 
• Consider the attribute use and purpose and mark it accordingly
• For a group of similar attributes, create a new custom subobject

Example:

• You have 50 license related custom project attributes to create 
• Do not add them all to project object
• Create a custom subobject to project called License and add all attributes to that subobject 
• Then you can add the module in MUX blueprint and have the users update the fields there
• You can also leverage custom master objects if that suits your purpose better

Additional Information

• Excerpt from documentation at: Broadcom Documentation - Studio Objects and Attributes

"The product supports up to 500 total attributes for each object. However, we recommend that you do not assign more than 100 attributes to a single custom object. A high number of attributes can result in performance issues and the potential failure of subsequent upgrades. Consider creating a subobject rather than assigning many custom attributes to a single object."