Overview of Rational Reporting

IBM® Rational® provides solutions to support both document generation and development intelligence capabilities. These capabilities are delivered as both commercial products and embedded technologies within other IBM Rational products.
There are two broad categories of information presentation that are important for software and systems development:

IBM Rational Reporting supports two main capabilities: document generation and development intelligence. Both capabilities can publish content into many formats and correlate data from a wide variety of sources; however, their published content is distinct in nature and in use.

Topic icon Document generation
Topic icon Development intelligence
Topic icon Rational reporting solutions

Document generation

Document generation is the process of producing detailed text-based reports on artifacts in your organization. Document-style reports are generally used for determining detailed status or documenting conditions.

Document generation capabilities produce highly structured documents that can be delivered as artifacts. These physical documents are often used as the basis of formal communications between teams.

The reports are tools to capture detailed, point-in-time information. The reports are a means to communicate status, monitor progress, diagnose problems, and identify corrective actions.

Image of Document Generation reporting: Document-style reports

Document-style reports typically have the following characteristics:
  • They are primarily text-based and can include graphics (for example: requirements specification, compliance document, test coverage document, end to end lifecycle traceability report, etc.)
  • Specifications are often written in one project phase and then passed into the following phase (for example: a requirements document is handed off to a design team)
  • Documents may be contractual deliverables (for example: the completion of a specification may be an exit criteria for a project phase, and trigger a payment)
  • Documents often form the basis of a contractual relationship (for example: a requirements specification between customer and supplier)
  • Specifications may have to comply with standards/requirements in both structure and styling. Such standards can come from internal groups, customers, government and industry regulatory bodies etc.
For example, document generation reports can include:
  • A requirements specification, where a document is written and generated in a phase of a project and provided to other teams to communicate project requirements.
  • A compliance document that demonstrates how each requirement is met by design, where the completion of a specification may be an exit criteria for project phases.
  • A test coverage document that describes the test cases associates with each requirement, defect, and work item.
  • An end to end lifecycle traceability report.
Figure 1. Example of a Document Generation report
Example of a Document Generation report that displays release enhancement requirements


Development intelligence

Development intelligence is the application of business intelligence techniques to a development environment. Development intelligence reports are generally used for management purposes.

Development intelligence capabilities provide stakeholders with data to support their day-to-day decision making. These reports tend to be viewed on a screen. The reports themselves are not typically the deliverables. Development intelligence reports are tools for communicating status, monitoring progress, diagnosing problems, and identifying corrective actions. They are a key decision support tool for managing projects and programs.

The reports are tools to define and support decisions made in managing development projects. The reports are a means to communicate status, monitor progress, diagnose problems, and identify corrective actions.

Image of Development Intelligence reporting: Graphs; Charts; Dashboards

Development intelligence reports typically have the following characteristics:
  • They are primarily graphical (ex: pie charts, graphs, scorecards, etc.)
  • The reports help to communicate status, monitor progress, diagnose problems, identify corrective actions, etc.
  • They are a decision-support tool for managing projects and programs.
Development intelligence applies traditional business intelligence techniques to help you analyze and understand your data:
  • Crosstabs/pivots – How does the data break down?
  • Drill up/down/through – How is the data interrelated?
  • Dashboards – What is the big picture?
  • Data warehouses – How are we trending over time?
For example, development intelligence reports can include:
  • A pie chart to demonstrate the percentage of open work items or defects
  • A graph to show the change in the number of untested work items over time
  • A graph to show the rate of change of requirements (volatility) over time
  • A scorecard of key performance indicators (KPIs) to monitor program and project health
Figure 2. Example of a Development Intelligence report
Example of a Development Intelligence report that displays open and closed work items


Rational reporting solutions

IBM Rational provides solutions to support both document generation and development intelligence capabilities. These capabilities are delivered as both commercial products and embedded technologies within other IBM Rational products.

Table 1. Rational reporting solutions
Delivery Document generation solution Development intelligence solution
Embedded in Rational solutions and applications IBM Rational Reporting for Document Generation IBM Rational Reporting for Development Intelligence
Commercial products IBM Rational Publishing Engine IBM Rational Insight


Reporting in Rational products

Built-in reporting in Rational applications

A set of predefined, out-of-the-box, reports delivered with some Rational application to satisfy common reporting scenarios.

Rational Reporting applications
Together, IBM Rational Reporting for Document Generation and IBM Rational Reporting for Development Intelligence make up Rational Reporting. IBM Rational Reporting supports both document generation and development intelligence capabilities.
Rational Reporting for Development Intelligence
Data Collection Component
Runs data collection jobs from Rational solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management (CLM) applications and loads the data into the data warehouse. This offering is an alternative to other tools that run data collection jobs, such as the Data Manager for Rational Insight or the Java ETL that the CLM solution provides. This offering is designed to improve performance using parallel and concurrent processing with simpler, model-driven solutions.
Jazz Reporting Service
Consolidates data from a variety of data sources across your integrated lifecycle tools and project areas. A set of predefined reports is available in a Jazz Reporting Service catalog from which you can select report widgets to add to your dashboards.
Rational Report Server
Uses the CLM data warehouse or Rational Insight data warehouse and extends the predefined reporting capabilities that help you to create and view either product-specific reports or reports that integrate data from across the CLM applications that are deployed within a single Jazz™ Team Server). Hosts the IBM Cognos® reporting framework. which includes report customization and administration tools and the content store, which stores configuration and other metadata, including data models and report definitions and views
Rational Reporting for Document Generation
Uses application REST APIs to access live data. Documents are generated using product artifacts and document templates that were developed using Rational Publishing Engine. Rational Reporting for Document Generation is embedded in Rational solution for Collaborative Lifecycle Management, IBM Rational DOORS®, IBM Rational Focal Point™, IBM Rational Rhapsody®, and IBM Rational Software Architect Design Manager.
Rational Insight

If your enterprise involves distributed teams using multiple JTS, Rational applications other than the CLM applications, or third party tools, you may need to customize the data that is loaded into the reporting data warehouse. IBM Rational Insight extends Rational Reporting for Development Intelligence (the CLM embedded development intelligence solution) with support for multiple JTS deployments, integration of data from CLM, other non-CLM Rational applications, and third party tools (such as RationalClearQuest®, RationalRequisitePro®, RationalDOORS, and Microsoft Project). Rational Insight helps you to customize how data are extracted from the applications and loaded into the data warehouse, the reporting data model, reports and metrics.

Rational Publishing Engine

IBM Rational Publishing Engine extends Rational Reporting for Document Generation by helping you to create and view custom documents from CLM and non-CLM applications.



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