Methodology is the process and strategy used to manage software. Within Rational Synergy, the methodology controls the flow of software throughout the development cycle, from original development, through testing, release, and maintenance.
Rational Synergy supports the task-based methodology, which enables you to track changes to your software application using tasks as the basic unit of work. A task represents a single logical change. These topics discuss some of the benefits of task-based CM.
Developers naturally think in terms of logical changes, and mentally map each change to the specific files that need to change. With most configuration management systems, developers must remember to check in each file they change. The task-based CM methodology helps developers work the way they think, by automatically track all related changes and checking them in together as one step.
With task-based CM, you can configure your application as a baseline plus a set of tasks. It makes sense to create a release of your application by starting from the last milestone or release. Add a specific list of fixes or enhancements.
Because it knows more about the relationships between files than non-task-based systems, task-based CM can detect conflicts in your software configuration before testing occurs. Rational Synergy can detect missing or partially missing tasks when you update your configuration.
You can list the contents of a release in a meaningful way using the task descriptions, rather than just a list of source files.
Tasks can be related to the defect and enhancement reports your customers submit, providing a tight integration between your change request system and actual software changes.