Component and Stream Level Access Control in IBM DOORS Next (DNG) within a Project Area

Currently, IBM DOORS Next (DNG) provides access control only at the Project Area (PA) level. Users who are granted access to a Project Area can view all components, streams, and associated Global Configuration (GC) structures within that Project Area.

Many organizations require more granular access control. In our use case, external or internal customer users need to contribute and modify artifacts within a specific stream or component, but they should not have visibility of the complete project structure, other components, or the overall Global Configuration hierarchy.

Requested Enhancement: Introduce the capability to define read, write, modify, and administrative permissions at Component and/or Stream level, independent of Project Area permissions.

Expected Behavior

• Access rights can be assigned at:

  • Project Area level (existing behavior)

  • Component level

  • Stream level

• Users can be granted access only to specific components or streams.

• Users without permissions should not be able to view restricted:

  • Components

  • Streams

  • Baselines

  • Global Configuration structures linked to those components

• Permission inheritance should be configurable (PA → Component → Stream).

Business Benefits

• Better protection of confidential project information.

• Supports collaboration with customers, suppliers, and external partners.

• Enables secure multi-team development within a shared Project Area.

• Reduces the need to create separate Project Areas solely for access restriction purposes.

• Improves governance and compliance with customer-specific security requirements.

• Simplifies administration of large-scale DNG deployments.

Current Limitation

At present, organizations are forced to:

• Create separate Project Areas for access segregation, or

• Accept broader visibility than desired.

Both approaches introduce additional administrative effort and complexity.

Use Case Example

A customer requires edit access to a single stream within one component. The customer should:

• Be able to modify artifacts in that stream.

• Not be able to view other streams, components, or the complete Global Configuration tree.

This scenario is currently not achievable using standard DNG authorization capabilities. The requested enhancement would address this gap.

Additional Details

This enhancement has been requested multiple times during customer engagements involving Configuration Management and Global Configuration. It would significantly improve secure collaboration while maintaining a shared DNG Project Area structure.

Business Impact

Lack of component/stream-level access control limits secure collaboration with customers and suppliers, forcing organizations to create separate project structures and increasing administration, maintenance effort, and governance complexity.