A project contains a specific set of member objects and
provides an insulated working environment.
Different versions of the same project can be used for different
purposes. For example:
- Each developer has a working version for developing and testing
all ongoing changes.
- A separate version of the project can be used to collect the latest
completed tasks for integration testing.
- A version of the project can be used to build a specific set of
changes for system testing.
- Another version of the project can be used to save a specific
configuration as a release or milestone.
With all of these projects for different purposes, a team can work
together on the same application. The projects and the way they are
set up to select changes define your workflow.
Rational Synergy provides
a default workflow consisting of the following stages:
- Developers develop and test their changes in their development
projects. When they complete a task, the task is available for inclusion
in the integration testing projects. When developers update their
projects, they keep their own checked-out versions. They also get
the latest versions that passed integration testing.
- The integration testing projects gather all the tasks that are
completed. These projects are often used to implement a daily build
and smoke test, a best practice for software development. The goal
of integration testing is to find problems as soon as possible after
they are introduced. The build manager manages the integration testing
projects.
- The build manager creates a baseline when the build passes integration
testing.
- The system testing projects are used to build a specific set of
changes for in-depth testing. The build manager defines and updates
the list of changes to ensure that projects are insulated from ongoing
changes by developers. Individual fixes can be added, built, and retested
until the project meets the team quality standard. System testing
projects are often used to prepare for a release or milestone.
- After the software is released or reaches a milestone, the build
manager can baseline or release projects to preserve the configuration.
Released projects can be used as baselines for new releases.
This figure shows an example of how projects are used to implement
the Rational Synergy default
workflow. The arrows indicate the flow of tasks through the projects.

Rational Synergy is
setup so that you can use this methodology right away. However, the Rational Synergy process
model is flexible, so you can customize the default methodology to
suit your team process.