Impact rules let you encode business-specific logic that determines the severity of an engineering change and, when matched, overrides the threshold-based severity. Use rules for situations that aggregate thresholds cannot capture, such as protecting VIP customers, escalating single-source supplier disruptions, or flagging imminent deliveries. When a rule matches, the agent applies the rule severity and explains its reasoning with a custom warning message.
Prerequisites
You have access to the Engineering change management module in D365 F&SCM.
You are assigned the System administrator or ECM manager role.
The ECM+ Impact Agent is configured and operational.
Steps
Go to Engineering change management > Setup > Impact analysis > Impact rules. The Impact rules list page opens and displays all configured rules with the Rule name, Description, and Enabled columns.
Select New to create a rule, or select an existing rule and then select Edit to change it. The Impact rule form opens with the Details, Applies to, Conditions, and Actions FastTabs.
On the Details FastTab, complete the following fields:
Rule name – Enter a unique identifier for the rule. This field is mandatory.
Priority – Enter a numeric value that sets the evaluation order. This field is mandatory. The system evaluates lower numbers first, and when several rules match, the rule with the lowest number is applied.
Enabled – Select this checkbox to activate the rule. When it is selected, the label reads Yes, this rule is active.
Rule set – Select the rule set that groups this rule with related rules, for example Aerospace Customer Rules.
Description – Enter the business justification that explains why the rule exists and which scenario it addresses.
Effective from – Select the date from which the rule becomes active. The agent does not evaluate the rule before this date. (This governs when the rule is in force, and is distinct from the effectivity date of an engineering change.)
Effective to – Select the date after which the rule is no longer active. Leave this field blank if the rule has no expiry.
On the Applies to FastTab, define the scope of the rule:
In the Scope field, select All engineering product types to apply the rule to every engineering product category, or select Specific product types to limit the rule to selected categories.
If you selected Specific product types, select the applicable categories in the Product types checklist, for example 040 - Manufactured Electronics or 050 - Mechanical Components.
In the Legal entities field, select All legal entities to apply the rule across every legal entity, or select Specific legal entities and then select the applicable entities, for example USMF - Contoso US or DEMF - Contoso DE.
On the Conditions FastTab, define when the rule triggers:
Select Add condition to add a condition row.
In the Transaction type column, select Sales order, Purchase order, Production order, or Inventory.
In the Field column, select the field to evaluate. The available fields depend on the selected transaction type and correspond to the fields on the related Dynamics 365 form or data entity, for example Customer group, Customer account, Delivery date, or Sales amount for a sales order.
In the Operator column, select the comparison operator: = (Equal to), != (Not equal to), > (Greater than), < (Less than), >= (Greater than or equal to), <= (Less than or equal to), or Contains.
In the Value column, enter or select the value to compare against.
In the Logic column, select AND to require all conditions, OR to match any condition, or -- for the last condition in the list.
To add more conditions, select Add condition again and repeat the previous step.
On the Actions FastTab, define what happens when the conditions are met:
In the Override mode field, select Set to specific level. This is currently the only supported override mode.
In the Impact level field, select CRITICAL, HIGH, MEDIUM, or LOW.
In the Warning message field, enter a clear, actionable message that explains the business impact. The agent shows this message in the impact analysis results and uses it to explain the severity classification.
Select Save.
Results
The agent evaluates the saved rules against the affected transactions whenever you ask about impact analysis.
When a rule matches, its severity overrides the threshold-based severity, and the agent cites the rule name and warning message in its explanation.
The following examples show typical rules that organizations configure:
Rule | Condition | Severity | Warning message |
|---|---|---|---|
VIP Customer Critical Override | Sales order Customer group = VIP-TIER1 | CRITICAL | VIP customer impact: Executive approval required before proceeding. |
Urgent Delivery Protection | Sales order Days to nearest delivery < 7 | HIGH | Orders shipping within 7 days - expedite review required. |
Single-Source Supplier Critical | Purchase order Vendor = VENDOR-SINGLESOURCE | CRITICAL | Single-source vendor impact: No alternative suppliers available. |
Combine conditions for more precise targeting. For example, use Customer group = VIP-TIER1 AND Days to nearest delivery < 14 to flag only urgent VIP orders.
Note
Rules can currently target only four transaction types; Sales order, Purchase order, Production order, and Inventory. The remaining transaction types in the impact scope (purchase requisitions, quotations, and inventory journals) are evaluated for counts and metrics but cannot yet be used as rule conditions.
In the first release, you can add a maximum of three conditions to an impact rule. This limit protects system performance.
Ignore the Additional actions option on the Actions FastTab. This option is reserved for future development.
If a rule references a field that does not exist or has invalid conditions, the system displays an error message when you save. If you configure no rules, the agent falls back to threshold-based severity.