How to add user or dispatch instructions to a relationship in Mavim

Target audience

Mavim users who want to provide additional guidance for using or dispatching topics linked by a relationship.

Core purpose/goal

To explain how to add, edit, and remove user instructions or dispatch instructions to relationships between topics in Mavim.

What are user and dispatch instructions?

• User instructions: Provide guidance for using a topic, such as how to complete a form.
• Dispatch instructions: Indicate what should happen to a topic after an activity is completed, such as sending or saving a form.

These instructions can only be added to relationships created by the user, not system-generated relationships (e.g., revision info, matrices, hyperlinks).

Steps to add user instructions

1. Open the Relationships screen.
2. Select the relationship where you want to add instructions.
3. Right-click and choose User Instructions.
4. In the window that opens:
   • Click Create to enter your instruction text.
   • Click Delete to remove existing instructions.
   • Click Close to exit the window.
5. After adding instructions, an icon will appear in the Relationships screen indicating that instructions exist.

Steps to add dispatch instructions

1. Open the Relationships screen.
2. Select the relationship and choose Dispatch Instructions from the context menu.
3. In the window that opens:
   • Click New to create a dispatch instruction.
   • (Optional) Change the Name of the instruction.
   • At Type, select the dispatch type:
     • None: Enter free text instructions.
     • Send: Specify where the topic should be sent.
     • Save: Indicate where the topic should be saved.
     • Input: Select a topic to use as input.
     • Mechanism: Select a supporting topic.
     • Control: Select a control topic.
   • Enter instruction text in the lower part of the window.
   • At Path, verify the selected topic.
4. Use Delete to remove the selected dispatch instruction.
5. Click Close to exit.

Dispatch instructions are marked with a specific icon in the Relationships screen.

Important notes

• Instructions are optional and can be added or removed at any time.
• Relationships created via Fields of type Relationship can also have instructions.
• Instructions created in Visio (e.g., Archimate diagrams) differ technically and cannot be merged with those created in Mavim Manager.