# Lifecycle Management

## Introduction

With the Lifecycle Management function you can simulate and map procedures as part of the release management. Lifecycle management is defined by means of:

- states, phases
- and transitions

Lifecycle management provides the tools to define any kind of organizational procedure within Agile e6.

The following concepts are frequently used when discussing lifecycle management procedures:

- State:
  Defines the basic state of an object (e.g. In Work, In Approval, Released.).

- Phase:
  Defines the development level (maturity level) of an object, i.e. how far an objects has evolved within its lifecycle (e.g. Development, Construction, Production, etc.).

- Progress Indicator:
  A combination of state and phase that is used to clearly indicate the development state of an object by means of a numerical value.

- Transition:
  The definition of conditions for a transition from state "a" to state "b". In Agile e6 transitions are also refered to as transition steps. The following parameters can be defined for a transition:
  - target status / target level of maturity
  - who is privileged to approve (Group(s) or priviledge from Role model)
  - access rights
  - userexits (pre- and post- userexits)
- Lifecycle:
  This term describes transition combinations (including current states) that are required to change the state or degree of maturity of an element.