Filed under: Tools & Methodology
Author: Venkat Madipadaga, Chief Architect – SIDGS
Integrated Development Platform (IDP) is a common integrated solution to support development process across multiple technology technology platforms like J2EE and System z (Mainframe). The solution is a combination of tools, connectors and processes. The solution is composed of various tools that support different phases of Software Life Cycle (SLC). SID Global Solutions (SIDGS) Enterprise Architecture Practice proposes this solution using IBM Rational tools and Unified Change Management (UCM) process. Following is the tooling strategy for the individual areas of Software Life Cycle (SLC).
Requirements Management: Rational RequisitePro
Application Life Cycle & Defect Management: Rational ClearQuest
Revision Management: Rational ClearCase
Development: Rational Software Architect (RSA)/Rational Developer for System z (RDz)
Test Management: Rational Test Manager (RTM)/ClearQuest Test Manager (CQTM)/Rational Quality Manager (RQM)
Build Management: Rational Build Forge
The above tooling is integrated to form the base platform for the solution. The following is the workflow using this solution. Requirements & Usecases are created and maintained in RePro. These requirements can be assigned to the developers in the project by the Team Lead or Project Manager. The Developer logs into RSA/RDz and opens ReqPro perspective in which he will see all of the requirements assigned to him and implements those requirements in the application code. He updates the code using RSA/RDz IDE/features after checking out all the source code modules required to make that change from Revision Management repository ClearCase. During check out of source code from ClearCase (CC), it prompts the developer for ClearQuest (CQ) Activity ID that has to be recorded for that specific checkout transaction to capture the change record/history. So, developer chooses CQ activity ID of the activity that was assigned to him which suggested implementing that specific requriement or change. After making changes to the source code, developer delivers the changes from his own private development stream to project common workspace integration stream (Common work area for the project). Here, out of integration stream, software application is built using Build Forge and the built software is deployed in the appropriate server environment and at that point the built application can be turned over to Quality Assurance team for testing. The QA team will use ClearQuest Test Manager to execute the test procedures/cases using the test scripts that are created using Rational Functional Tester (RFT) for automated testing & Rational Manual Tester (RMT) for manual testing, which are stored in ClearCase repository.
This solution solves the universal industry wide problem of keeping up with upto-date reliable traceability during Software Development Life Cycle (SDLC) by providing the end-to-end traceability, right from Requirements thru Test cases & built software. It helps in managing dynamically changing product/project artifacts during various phases of SLC while managing the relationships between these various artifacts.
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This is very good article. It helps alot to understand how SDLC phases can be implemented in an integrated fashion.
Comment by Shravn January 29, 2009 @ 5:39 am