Glossary

This glossary includes terms and definitions for IBM® Rational® Lifecycle Integration Adapters

The following cross-references are used in this glossary:
  • See refers you from a term to a preferred synonym, or from an acronym or abbreviation to the defined full form.
  • See also refers you to a related or contrasting term.

To view glossaries for other IBM products, go to www.ibm.com/software/globalization/terminology.

A

adapter
An intermediary software component that allows two other software components to communicate with one another.
application
One or more computer programs or software components that provide a function in direct support of a specific business process or processes. See also application server.
application server
A server program in a distributed network that provides the execution environment for an application program. See also application.
argument
A value passed to or returned from a function or procedure at run time.
artifact
An entity that is used or produced by a software development process. Examples of artifacts are models, source files, scripts, and binary executable files.
authorization
The process of granting a user, system, or process either complete or restricted access to an object, resource, or function.

C

certificate
In computer security, a digital document that binds a public key to the identity of the certificate owner, thereby enabling the certificate owner to be authenticated. A certificate is issued by a certificate authority and is digitally signed by that authority.
change request (CR)
A request from a stakeholder to change an artifact or process. See also defect.
change set
A group of related changes to files, folders, or symbolic links in a workspace or stream.
class loader
Part of the Java™ virtual machine (JVM) that is responsible for finding and loading class files. A class loader affects the packaging of applications and the runtime behavior of packaged applications deployed on application servers.
CLM project
A project that was created using IBM Collaborative Lifecycle Management tools.
consumer
  1. An entity that receives data from another entity.
  2. An entity that receives data from another entity.
CR
See change request.

D

defect
A project element that allows a project manager to track bugs and bug fixes.

F

friend
An entity that has an established connection to another entity for communication. For example, a server can be a friend to another server.
full capacity licensing
A method of licensing in which the licensee must obtain PVU entitlements that are sufficient to cover all activated processor cores in the physical hardware environment that are made available to or managed by the licensed program.

H

heap
An area of storage that is allocated with a lifetime unrelated to the execution of the current routine. The heap consists of the initial heap segment and zero or more increments.
hook
An empty script in which code can be entered.

K

keystore
In security, a file or a hardware cryptographic card where identities and private keys are stored, for authentication and encryption purposes. Some keystores also contain trusted or public keys.
keytool
A utility used for creating SSL encryption keys and managing the keystores where they are maintained.

L

linked data
Data that is published on the web in such a way that its meaning is explicitly defined, so that it can be linked to and from by other data sets.

M

master configuration
The configuration data held in a set of files that form the master repository for either a deployment manager profile or a stand-alone profile. For a deployment manager profile, the master configuration stores the configuration data for all the nodes in the network deployment cell.
module
A structured document that is composed of multiple requirement artifacts. Structure can be created in a module by modifying the order and hierarchy of the artifacts.

O

Open Services
See Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration.
Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (Open Services, OSLC)
A community effort to facilitate the collaboration of resources across the software delivery life cycle and to create standard protocols for exchanging data in an open and non-proprietary manner.
OSLC
See Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration.

P

parameter (parm)
A value or reference passed to a function, command, or program that serves as input or controls actions. The value is supplied by a user or by another program or process.
parm
See parameter.
plug-in
A separately installable software module that adds function to an existing program, application, or interface.
processor core
A single processing unit on a chip with multiple processing units.
processor value unit (PVU)
A unit of measure that is assigned to each processor core for software licensing purposes. PVUs vary according to chip architecture. See also subcapacity.
project area
An area in the repository where information about one or more software projects is stored.
PVU
See processor value unit.

R

repository
A persistent storage area for data and other application resources.
requirement
A condition or capability that a system must provide. This condition is either derived direction from user needs or stated in a contract, standard, specification, or other document.
response file
A file that can be customized with the setup and configuration data that automates an installation. During an interactive installation, the setup and configuration data must be entered, but with a response file, the installation can proceed without any intervention.

S

schema
A specification for the structure and semantics of some related data. The schema is used to validate or otherwise understand a group of data.
security certificate
A certificate containing information used by the SSL protocol to establish a secure connection. The information can include who a certificate belongs to, who issued it, its unique serial number, its valid dates, and its encrypted 'fingerprint’ that is used to verify the contents of the certificate.
server friend
A server that allows other servers to communicate with it. After cross-server communication is configured, project areas and artifacts can be linked across servers.
silent installation
An installation that does not send messages to the console but instead stores messages and errors in log files. A silent installation can use response files for data input. See also response file.
subcapacity
Pertains to a software licensing scheme that bases charges on the capacity of the partition where the licensed program is used, rather than on the total capacity in the server. See also processor value unit.
suspicion profile
A profile that identifies a set of link types, artifact types, and attributes to watch for changes. When artifacts that match the profile criteria are changed, the linked artifacts are marked with a suspicion indicator.

T

test case
A set of input values, execution preconditions, expected results and execution postconditions, developed for a particular objective or test condition, such as to exercise a particular program path or to verify compliance with a specific requirement. (ISTQB)
test plan
A set of test cases that defines an area of testing.
trusted consumer
A consumer that can share authorization with other trusted consumers and does not require user approval to access data. A consumer must be designated as trusted in an access request to become a trusted consumer.

W

web application
An application that is accessible by a web browser and that provides some function beyond static display of information, for instance by allowing the user to query a database. Common components of a web application include HTML pages, JSP pages, and servlets.
work item
An artifact representing a generalized notion of a development task, such as a task, defect report, or enhancement request.

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