Architecting and designing > DoDAF > DoDAF 1.5 Activity Based Methodology (ABM) > Developing operational views with DoDAF ABM > Generating information exchange requirements and needlines (ABM for DoDAF)
  
Generating information exchange requirements and needlines (ABM for DoDAF)
You can use a utility to automatically generate Information Exchange Requirement (IER) definitions and Needline definitions.
1 Click Tools > DoDAF (ABM) Utilities > Generate Information Exchange Definitions.
2 Select Generate IERs from leaf level Activities.
If you feel it is not possible to decompose your OV-5 Activity diagrams down to a lowest-leaf level, you can choose the other selection, Generate IERs from leaf and parent level Activities.
3 You can also select the following options:
Associate IERs to new and/or existing Needlines
Associate IERs to generated Needlines
Associate IERs to user-drawn Needlines
Remove generated Needlines that contain no related IERs
Remove user drawn Needlines which contain no related IERs
Disassociate any invalid IERs from Needlines
4 Click Run.
The appropriate Information Exchange Requirement (IER) definitions and Needline definitions are generated, and a report is displayed that details the actions taken and problems encountered.
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Next
Analyze the report. The IER Generator parses OV-05 Activity models, collects all leaf level activities, reviews all their inputs, traces and attempts to locate an output for each input based on the activity's relationship to operational nodes.
See also
Developing operational views with DoDAF ABM