Understand PDC Release Levels
- Tom Fahey (Unlicensed)
- Pamela Totas (Deactivated)
- Paul Dixon (Unlicensed)
PDC assigns a release level to each entity it processes based on the number and type of exceptions triggered during policy processing.
The release level workflow is a cumulative hierarchy. For an entity/fund to pass a particular release level, it has to pass the validation for all fields of that particular level. An entity/fund can only achieve a higher release level if all lower levels are free of exceptions. For example, the entity is of release level 0 (Incomplete), even if all the fields for release level 2 and 3 are free of exceptions but it contains just, one level 1 field that has an exception. Once the exception for the level 1 field is fixed or released, then the entity not only qualifies for a release level of 1, but since level 2 and 3 fields are clear then the entity is assigned the release level of 3 (the highest level).
The release level hierarchy for Portfolio Data Center tracks is maintained as code and code values.
Code Category | PDC_REL_LEVELS |
Code Category Description | Portfolio Data Center Release Levels |
Portfolio Data Center is pre-populated with code values for a four-level hierarchy (level 0-level 3).
Field Level Assignment
The release levels are assigned to fields so that the system knows how to process the entity correctly. For illustrative purposes, the following diagram shows that the field ‘Domicile’ has an assigned validation (Domicile is missing) and has a release level of 1 (released for level 1 activity).
That is, during the entity setup, if the Domicile field is left blank, then the entity throws level 1 exception. Therefore, the entity cannot achieve a release level of 1 until the exception is fixed or released.Â
How are Release Levels Used
Release level do not control any processing or reporting activity within the Eagle suite. Its purpose is to act as an indicator to show the reference data analyst the ‘fit for purpose’ level of a entity and also to easily identify the entities with outstanding issues.
Release Level Modification
The best practice is to leave the release level code values as it is. Note: Customization is supported to a certain degree only.
Description
PDC allows you to modify the long description of the code values at any time. For example, level 0 has a default description as 'Incomplete’. You can edit the code value long description, for example, like ‘Contains Critical Errors’ or ‘Not Released’. Similarly, if needed, you can change ‘Released for Level 1 Activity’ to ‘Released for Trading’ or some other purpose as per your requirement. If you need to change the code descriptions, the best practice is to do it as soon as you deploy PDC and do not modify it over time. However, the descriptions are not stored as data and you can change it without impacting processing.
Number of Release Level
Generally, the best practice recommended by Eagle is not to change the number of release level once the entity processing has started, in order to prevent previously processed entities from becoming out of synch. By default, the package content contains 4 pre-defined release levels. If you do not require all the four levels, then there is nothing wrong in leaving the code set with the existing 4 levels. However, if you require additional release levels, it is important to add the release levels during implementation itself, that is, before you process entities in PDC.
PDC assigns each entity a release level based on the passed or failed validation and the hierarchy in place when the entity is processed. Consider that if you have already processed all entities and they achieved the release level 3 'Complete', then you added a 4th and 5th release level, wherein level 5 is now the highest level and also level 3 now inherits a new description like 'Released for Performance Calculation'. Now you have entities that are free of exception, but no longer have the highest release level unless they are reprocessed.
Add Release Level
To add levels to the release level hierarchy:
From the left navigation, select Setup > Metadata > Codes.
You see the Codes workspace with the available list of code values.Double-click the PDC Release Level code value.
You see the Edit/Edit Code Value page.Select Code Value tab and click Add Code Value link.
You add new code values to the PDC Release Level code, as needed.
You make sure to increment the short description of the new code values by 1.Reset the long descriptions of all code values to reflect the new hierarchy.
You make sure that level 0 has a description indicating that it is the lowest level (Incomplete). Also make sure the highest level has a description indicating that it is the highest level, meaning free of all exceptions (Complete).You log out of PDC and have an administrator recycle the PDC engines to cache the new hierarchy.
Rerun all enabled policies not in delta mode (except default policies) to synchronize entities to the new hierarchy levels.
Status of Release Level
The Summary workspace enables you to view which entities are fully (versus partially) released. Each release level has a corresponding color-coded symbol, as shown in the following figure:
Display of release level statusÂ
Entities that have achieved full release level are shown with a green circle, while partially released entities are shown with a red square.
You can customize the release level at which the display is shown as green. You can control this with System Setting menu. By default, entities that have release level 3 (the maximum release level) is displayed in green. To change it, select Portfolio Data Center > Setup > System Settings > System Item 1019.
Eagle strongly recommends resetting of System item 1019 to match the number associated with the highest level, if you modify the number of levels in the release level hierarchy.