When you install IBM Rational products that share components, or shell share, you can open a product that subsequently checks out a floating license key for another product. For example, suppose you install Rational Software Modeler and IBM Rational Software Architect in the same shell, C:\IBM\devtools. Both packages have been enabled for Rational Common Licensing (powered by FLEXlm software) to use floating licenses. When the Rational Software Modeler attempts to check out a floating license for shared components and fails, it can then attempt to check out an available license for Rational Software Architect.