Process is the collection of roles, practices, rules, and
guidelines used to organize and control the flow of work. The project
process is defined in a project area and can be further customized
in a team area. In Jazz™, you
use process to define user roles and their permissions for performing
operations within the tool, such as changing the state of a work item.
Because each component in Jazz is
process aware, you can add rules of process behavior in the form of
preconditions and follow-up actions for these operations. Process
can also define project reports, queries, and work item types.
Your process will vary with the complexity of the project and the
size and number of teams assigned to the project. Jazz includes process templates that you can
adopt and customize. Your team can begin with a simple process and
evolve it as the project progresses. If you have customized the process,
you can create a new process template and make it available to other
teams. Process templates can include an informal description of the
specified process.
Jazz supports process in
the following ways:
- Jazz is process-aware. The
process is explicitly represented, and all the work that team members
do within the system happens within a context of a defined process.
- Jazz components are process-enabled.
Process can be implemented to exert influence over each component's
operations and artifacts.
- Jazz is process-neutral.
Each project team can define an appropriate level of control and guidance.
- Process is hierarchical. The general project-wide process is defined
at the project level. The process can then be modified to meet the
needs of team areas within the project. At each level within the team
hierarchy the parent process can define how much flexibility its child
teams have to override or otherwise modify the process for their needs.
Frequently, there is no single process that applies to all team
members and all phases of a project. You can use process behavior
to customize the process in specific team areas and iterations. The
project process specification addresses project-wide, team, and role-specific
behavior and permissions:
- Client-side and server-side project initialization
- Predefined project reports and queries
- Work item types, workflows, and enumerations
- Roles available for a team
- Team and role-specific permissions for client and server-side
operations
- Team and role-specific preconditions that define the conditions
under which client-side and server-side operations are allowed to
proceed
- Team and role-specific follow-up actions for client-side and server-side
operations