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System Hierarchy & Traceability

Video transcript

00:04 — System Hierarchy

Every artifact in Creopus — requirements, FMEAs, verification plans, bills of materials — attaches to a node in your product hierarchy, a five-level V-model from the system down to a subassembly. Here is the whole smart door lock as one tree. Click any node — the Main Control Board — and a full engineering workbench opens: its V-model properties, the requirements derived at that level, every attached artifact, and the verification coverage matrix — the traceability health for that node and everything under it. One connected model, from the system down to the last component.

What it does​

Every hardware product is modeled as a product breakdown structure. New systems use the six levels of the NASA product breakdown structure: system → subsystem → assembly → subassembly → component → part. Systems created before 25 September 2026 keep the earlier five levels (system → work package → subsystem → assembly → subassembly), and you can still choose those when you create a system. Every artifact (requirements, FMEAs, DVPs, block diagrams, BOMs) attaches to a node, and the links between them are tracked automatically.

The hierarchy tree for a UAV flight control system, with the V-model lifecycle, life-cycle gates and per-node tabs for requirements, verification, validation and configuration status

Aquila FCS: a 16-node flight control system on the five-level structure. The left rail is the tree; the tabs across the middle are the views that hang off whichever node you select.

A product family, such as a base and a Pro model, lives in one tree, with each part tagged with the models it belongs to. The tree can also be browsed as pictures. See Product variants and the Visual PBS.

Why it matters​

When a recall hits, regulators ask: "Show me every requirement that drove this safety-critical part." In document-based systems, this is a multi-week archeology project. In Creopus, it's one click.

How it works​

  • Materialized path storage — fast tree queries, deep nesting without join hell.
  • Ancestor-inherited team permissions — add a teammate to a system node as owner, editor, or viewer and they get the same access to all its children automatically.
  • Visibility flags — public (for community/Discover page), team, or private.
  • Cross-artifact linking — FMEA rows, DVP tests, and BOM lines trace back to specific requirements, and Trace Findings flags any gaps: suspect or dangling links, orphan requirements, and requirements missing verification.

Use cases​

  • Compliance audit prep — generate full requirement-to-test traceability matrix in seconds.
  • Design review packets — one URL contains the full hierarchy snapshot.
  • Regulatory submissions — IEC 62304, ISO 26262, ISO 13485 traceability.