The Recursive Capability Parent/Child Relationship Check searches for invalid relationships and warns you when any of these types are found.

The Recursive Capability Parent/Child Relationship Check is the same as the StV-2, StV-4 Recursive Parent/Child Relationship Check of MODAF, but since the DoDAF specification does not call for it, the report does not have any prefix for the DoDAF user. DoDAF methodology does not permit two Capability definitions to be Parents of each other. For example, a definition named “Capability_1” can be a Parent of definition “Capability_2” and others. But at the same time, “Capability_2” cannot be a Parent of “Capability_1.” Such a scenario would violate the check and the report would list the recursive definitions in a message like:

Capability_2 has recursive Parent reference to Capability_1. Capability_1 has recursive Parent reference to Capability_2.

To eliminate recursive parent/child relationships, open a Capability Taxonomy or Capability Cluster diagram and disconnect the symbols defined by the recursive definitions. Pulling one symbol away from the other removes the relationship line between them. It is the same as the StV-2 diagram from MODAF, but since the DoDAF specification does not call for it, the diagram does not have any prefix for the DoDAF user. It is simply called the Capability Taxonomy diagram.