IBM Rational Synergy quick reference

If you want to dive right in and start exploring Rational Synergy, this quick reference covers the key concepts, terms, and visual elements that you will come across.

This topic includes the following sections:

Rational Synergy terminology and concepts

The Rational Synergy database is a data repository that stores all of your controlled data, including source and data files, their properties, and their relationships to one another.

The database contains projects. A project is a user-defined group of related files, directories, and other projects. A project normally represents a logical grouping of software, such as a library or an executable, and it contains the directory structure of the files. Projects are versioned like any other object.

Each project has an associated process, which determines the way a team works. A process groups process rules into a named set that are designed to work together. A process rule specifies how a project will be updated. The combination of a project's purpose and release determines which process rule a project will use. There are two predefined processes to choose from: standard and distributed. But you can also define your own processes or modify an existing one.

The planned work for a team is described by tasks. A task groups all the software modifications that need to be made to complete a logical change. A task can be created to fix a defect or to generate an enhancement. The following is a partial list of the properties for a task:

The current task is the task you are currently working on. When you designate a task as the current task, you tell Rational Synergy that each time you check out an object, you want the object to be associated with that task automatically. When you finish making all the software changes for a task, you can complete the task. Completing a task checks in all object versions associated with the task, and also checks in the task.

Using tasks enables you to move each logical change as a unit through the Rational Synergy lifecycle to completion. Using task information, you can gather versions of software for building and testing by specifying which logical changes you want.

Typically, developers perform operations for developing and testing software. Developers work on tasks in their own work areas. A work area is a location in your file system into which Rational Synergy writes a project when you check it out.

Typically, build managers perform operations for collecting and integrating software, and configuring and building areas where developers can access the integrated software. They also configure and build test areas, and prepare software for release. They perform build management operations by using build management projects.

The first build management project, called the integration testing project, enables build managers to collect, build, and test the latest completed tasks checked in by developers. The members of this project are brought in through a query of all completed tasks.

The second build management project, called the system testing project, enables build managers to collect, build, and test the application in more detail, to reach an agreed-upon quality standard. The members of this project are brought in through a carefully controlled manual process.

Additionally, build managers create a baseline as soon as they perform a build. A baseline is a set of projects and tasks used to represent data at a specific point in time. When a build manager performs an update, Rational Synergy uses a baseline as a starting point to look for new changes.

Creating a baseline for each integration testing and system testing build enables testers and developers to refer back to the set of changes that were used to create the build. Typically, build managers create a baseline for all projects in the same release and purpose. For example, a build manager would create a baseline for each integration testing build using all integration testing projects for a release.

Baselines also improve performance for update operations. An update that uses baselines only needs to analyze the tasks that were added since the last baseline, rather than all tasks for the entire release.

When the build manager has updated the system testing projects, dealt with conflicts, built products, and tested the application, he is ready to make the changes available to developers, testers, and other team members. The build manager then publishes the baseline.

Publishing the baseline makes it available as a baseline for selection during an update. The process rules ensure that projects will use the latest baseline.

Rational Synergy visual elements

The previous section discussed the development cycle, from developers completing tasks in their development projects, through the build managers gathering and testing of tasks, to the final project release and the establishment of a baseline. The following figure summarizes how projects are used to implement the workflow. The arrows show how tasks flow through the various projects. The key points in the figure are:


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