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Rational Method Composer

Features and Benefits

No two software development projects are alike. Each project has very different priorities, requirements, and technologies. Yet, on every project, you want to minimize risk, ensure predictable results, and deliver high-quality software on time.

IBM Rational Method Composer (RMC) is a flexible process management solution that includes both a powerful method authoring tool and extensive libraries of process and best practice assets. RMC tooling provides capabilities to author, tailor, manage, and publish processes descriptions.

The process and practice libraries included with RMC provide proven best practice content that can be re-used to compose the “right sized” process that meets the specific needs of your systems and software delivery teams.

  • Industry-proven best practices - Rational Method Composer includes customizable process libraries to help you manage, author, configure, and deploy effective processes tailored to your project needs. These libraries offer the industry’s most robust collection of best practices guidance for software and systems development, management, and governance with more than 100 selectable and customizable process best practices that can be applied to a variety of processes and domains. Two libraries ship with RMC:

  • The IBM Rational Unified Process®: With best practices adopted in thousands of projects worldwide and taught as part of the curricula in hundreds of universities, the RUP methodology has guided some 500,000 developers around the world in a broad range of software and systems delivery and implementation and effective project management development projects. The RUP process framework includes expanded process content (via plug-ins) in areas or solutions such as service-oriented architecture, packaged administration (commercial off-the-shelf), portfolio management, program management, systems engineering, and many others.

  • The IBM Practice Library: This library, introduced in Rational Method Composer 7.5 is based on the Unified Method Framework (UMF). The UMF defines a method architecture, standardized categorization schemes and views, and method authoring guidance to simplify method development and enable community development and sharing of method assets across organizations and teams. Central to the UMF is the concept of “Practices”. Practices represent a documented approach to solving one or more commonly occurring problems. Practices are loosely coupled, so they can be independently adopted to support incremental measured improvement initiatives. Each Practice includes guidance on when and how to adopt the practice, guidance on how to execute the practice using IBM Rational tools, and guidance on recommended measurements and metrics to assess practice adoption, project/product status and compliance to standards such as CMMI. Various pre-defined process configurations, including a RUP process configuration and a Disciplined Agile Delivery configuration, are provided which can be used as-is, tailored, or used as an example for developing your own practices and process configurations. With more than 50 proven practices available for solving common business, management and technical problems the IBM Practice Library provides a comprehensive knowledge base for improving systems and software delivery capability.

  • Process made practical - Unlike other commercial methodologies, the Rational Method Composer platform makes process practical with knowledge assets and guidance to help you jump-start project planning, get team members up to speed and working consistently, and put your customized process into action.

  • Adapts to your project needs - Only the Rational Method Composer platform provides a configurable process framework that enables you to select and deploy the specific process components you need to provide a consistent, yet customized process for each team and project.

  • Rapid Deployment and effective use of Rational Tools – Pre-defined tool configuration assets such as process templates, artifact templates, and report templates are included in the library for various IBM Rational tools. This speeds deployment and configuration of supporting tools and ensures that tool behavior matches the selected process and practices. Integrations with Rational tools provide in-context process guidance to provide the information practitioners need, where and when they need it. Making the process content accessible in this manner speeds on-boarding of new team members, provide operational efficiency and helps ensure the process is actually followed.

Rational Method Composer

Feature Description Benefit
Process configuration

Practices Practices represent a documented way of solving common business, management or technical problem. Practices are loosely coupled and can be independently adopted. Practices represent process “components” that can be assembled to create the “right-sized” process to meet your needs. Easy process configuration by selecting only those practices that address your specific operational objectives. Practices represent the unit of adoption for a measured improvement roadmaps.
Plug-ins All process assets are created and managed as plug-ins. Plug-ins represent a fine-grained means of tailoring a process or practices. Plug-ins you develop, or acquire from third parties can contribute to, extend or replace RUP or Practice plug-ins that ship with RMC without modifying the base content directly. For example, plug-ins to provide guidance on using a specific tool to enact a practice are easily imported to a library to create a configuration that meets your specific circumstances. Be more resilient to technology changes and combine multiple plug-ins to create a process configuration suited to your project's unique environment.
Configuring The Configuration editor helps you select a base method configuration, apply plug-ins, practices and other process components, configure process views, and publish your customized process quickly. Allows project managers and team leads to select and deploy only the practices and process components relevant to their project.
Process authoring

Authoring Approachable, form-based editors for each process element type (ex. role, work product, task) make it easy to author content, link related elements and ensure consistency and completeness of the end product. Rich text editors let you including images, tables, text and paragraph formatting to improve the appearance and richness of your published content.

Capabilities are available in each Rich Text Editor to process pasted HTML and MS Word documentation automatically to ensure consistent formatting of the end product.
No special modeling skills are required to create rich content that conforms to the OMG Systems and Software Process Meta-mode (SPEM 2.0).

Form-based editors help avoid the “blank page” syndrome and ensure consistency and help completeness of the content.

HTML and Rich Text cleanup ensures consistent look of the end-product when copy/pasting content from web-sites and MS Word document.
Process Tailoring

Process Builder A method configuration is a selection of content from a method library that can be published to a Web site or a document. The goal of using Process Builder is to create a method configuration that is easy to browse, preview, and select without knowing the details about the design and structure of the method library and its content.
Instead of knowing which content is located in which package in the method library, you can focus on answering simple questions about the content that you need and the goals that you want to accomplish with that content.
Rational® Method Composer ships with a predefined set of questions for selecting from the Practices content based on operational objectives, but you can also define your own sets of questions.
Simplifies the selection of best practices that address you specific business and operational objectives.
Tailoring Perspective Tailoring describes how existing method content and processes are customized to fit the needs of a real-world project.
A tailoring session is typically performed at the beginning of a project by the project manager. Other project team members such as the lead architect or development leader may participate in the process to ensure the tailored process suits the specific circumstances and team requirements of the project.
The Tailoring perspective provides the necessary views and functions which are required to customize the process while hiding information only required for authoring.
Simplifies the creation of a process that meets the needs of a specific project.
Process delivery

RSS Feeds Use RSS feeds to generate specific process information for subscribers in multiple standard formats such as "atom" and "rss2.0" from a Lucene search index. Address the need to present process in many different ways and mashups depending on the audience by linking to process content from other tools and feed-readers.
Tool mentors Delivers guidance for using Rational tools to perform tasks.

Tool configuration assets such as process and artifact templates are included for many of the supporting tools.
Makes process practical and helps team members better understand how to use Rational tools in the most effective manner.

Tool configuration assets speed tool deployment and configuration and ensure that the tools match the process.
Extended help Provides context-sensitive process and practice guidance directly from Rational tools. Promotes better, more effective tool use, boosting return on your tool investment.

Provides objective evidence for process audits via traceability from practitioner tools to the process.
Process automation, enactment, and reporting Export Rational Team Concert (RTC) work item templates based on RMC work breakdown structures. These templates can then be instantiated in RTC to create project plans, iteration plans or ad-hoc set of related work items/tasks for team members. Each work item is linked to the relevant guidance from RMC.

Export MS Project templates based on RMC work breakdown structures. Each plan item in MS project includes attributes for responsible role and required input and output work product as well as links to the content from RMC.
Ensure consistency between your process and your project plans for effective governance.

Provide the right information/guidance, where and when it is needed to execute project tasks. Makes process accessible, so it is more likely followed.

Simplify compliance during process audits by showing traceability from project plans/work items to process documentation.
Community & marketplace

developerWorks Rational developerWorks Rational is a Web portal designed specifically for teams using Rational tools and best practices. The RMC Plug-In Exchange, targeted whitepapers and articles, Web-based training, and discussion forums provide a worldwide resource and community for RMC practitioners.

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