alm14 © 2007 ibm corporation what keeps me rational? ibm rational software development conference...

ALM14

© 2007 IBM Corporation

What keeps me Rational?

IBM Rational Software Development Conference 2007

®

Utilizing IBM Rational Tools to Successfully Outsource in a Globally Distributed Development Environment

Matt AloiWes Fortin


ALM 14What keeps me Rational?

Agenda

Introduction

Outsourcing Challenges

Meeting the Challenges with IBM Rational Solutions

Questions



Outsourcing Challenges

Communication

Change Management

Distributed Project Management

Quality Assurance



Communication Challenge



Communication ChallengeCommunication Challenge




Different Company Cultures

Different Work Objectives

Different Experience Levels

Different Management Expectations

Different Methodologies and Processes

Different Time Zones




Common Problems Requirements not clear

Incomplete requirements

Application behaves differently than expected

Calculations are different than expected

Screen designs are different than expected

Report layouts are different that expected

Report results are different than expected

Application does not perform as expected

Implications Delivery delays

Dissatisfied Customers

Rework Required

Hidden/Additional Cost



Meeting the Communication Challenge

Building Working Relationships Face time/site visits

Online Chat/Video – Skype, Gtalk

Online Collaboration – Live Meeting, Webex, Sharepoint, etc.

Email

Requirements/Design IBM Rational Tools

Rose models/RSM/RSA templates, RequisitePro projects, ClearQuest database, ClearCase Versioned Object Bases

Are instruments for managing

– Source code, signoff documents, metrics, other project artifacts.



Meeting the Communications Challenge – Network Communications

Network/Internet Access Considerations Perform work at Remote Location

Perform work at Central Location

Perform work remotely through VPN

Perform work remotely through Internet

Access via remote desktop tools - Windows Remote Desktop, Citrix, VNC

Collaboration Site – i.e. Sharepoint

Rational Web Platform



Meeting the Communication Challenge

Rational Web Platform

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Clearcase Server

`

`

VPN

`

Remote Site

Core Site

Rational License Server



Meeting the Communications Challenge

Rational Web Platform Provides plumbing for IBM Rational Web based products

Accessible through VPN and consequently a key component for utilizing IBM Rational tools in a remote environment

Rational Web Base Products ClearCase Remote Client

ClearQuestWeb

RequisiteWeb

Project Console



Meeting the Communications Challenge - Requirements

What are the characteristics of good requirements? Consistent across projects

Well organized and easy to find information

Represents an agreement or contract between stakeholders

Meaningful to all stakeholders

Consistent, concise, and complete

Facilitates discussion and refinement to drive out ambiguities

Outsourced developers may not have the opportunity to ask client questions; consequently, system will be built based on documented requirements.



Meeting the Communications Challenge - Design

What are the characteristics of good design? Consistent across projects

Well organized and easy to find information

Communicates architecture and design details

with Unified Modeling Language (UML)

with design reviews

across geographic boundaries

Defines technical design details in a consistent manner

Links requirements to design

Many remote developers follow design so thoroughness and accuracy becomes critical.



Meeting the Communication Challenge - Tools

RequisitePro

Rational Rose

Rational Software Modeler/Rational Software Architect (RSM/RSA)

SoDA/Project Console

UML



Meeting the Communications Challenge with RequisitePro Use document templates and project templates to facilitate organization

and consistency across projects.

Track and document feature list to facilitate agreement between stakeholders.

Contains Use Case details and business rules to ensure completeness, gain consensus and facilitate discussion.

Link features, uses cases and business rules to ensure complete and concise requirements (document in one place) and provide traceability.

Discussion feature facilitates discussions centered around specific requirements.

Track approval of individual requirements to ensure requirements are understood and agreed upon by all stakeholders. Add RequisitePro attributes for appropriate signoffs.



Meeting the Communications Challenge with RequisitePro Templates Consistency

Project Template

Features

Business Rules

Use Cases requirements

Non functional requirements

Document Templates

System Use Cases

Use Case Scenarios

Test Architecture



Meeting the Communications Challenge with RequisitePro Organization



Meeting the Communication Challenge with Rational Rose/Rational Software Modeler/Rational Software Architect

Use of Rose framework/RSM templates provides a consistent structure for design that can be utilized across projects and geographic boundaries.

Rose/RSM are tools specifically for designing with the Unified Modeling Language, the software industry standard medium for communicating design.

Use case realizations with Rose/RSM linkage link requirements to design.

Rose/RSM provide medium for capturing and communicating technical details in a consistent manner. Stereotypes are used to define classes and attributes in a consistent manner to a geographically dispersed development team.

Rose Diagrams can be used to conduct design reviews across geographic boundaries (in conjunction with a tool such as Live Meeting). Team members should already be familiar with structure and standards so review’s total focus will be on the content.



Meeting the Communications Challenge with Rational Rose Organization



Meeting the Communication Challenge - SoDA/Project Console Consolidates information from various IBM Rational Tools that otherwise

could not be viewed in the same document.

Provides documentation for reviews and stakeholder signoffs.

Combines requirements and design information for individual use cases that can be used by business analysts, developers, and testers.

Re-usable from project to project providing requirements and design standards are followed.



Meeting the Communication Challenge with IBM Rational Distributed Tools IBM Rational Rose

IBM Rational ClearCase Remote Client

Unified Change Management (UCM)

Remote Desktop / Citrix

IBM Rational Rose Web Publisher

IBM Rational RequisitePro Remote Desktop / Citrix

IBM Rational RequisiteWeb

SoDA/Project Console Remote Desktop / Citrix

IBM Rational Web Platform / Project Console Templates



Tool Limitations

RequisitePro / Rose Integration Linking Rose elements to RequisitePro requirements must be done with RequisitePro and

Rose desktop tools. Feature is not supported in RequisiteWeb.

RequisiteWeb Word interface does not provide full functionality for editing word documents. Suggest using Remote Desktop and RequisitePro for updating Word documents.

Rose / ClearCase Integration The ClearCase Remote Client and Rose integration is not part of product functionality.

Use remote desktop and standard ClearCase for UCM merge operations on Rose models.

Remote desktop tools and SoDA SoDA does not have a built-in Web Interface

Use remote desktop to create SoDA templates

Use Project Console to build web based reports



Demo



Change Management ChallengeChange Management Challenge



Change Management Challenges

How is the source code and database-related code managed?

How is the code associated with builds managed?

How is the project documentation managed?

How are defects/scope changes managed?



Meeting the Change Management Challenge – Managing Code What are requirements for managing code for distributed teams?

Manage same code base at geographically distributed locations

Developers work on code base independently in their own work area

Code is merged based on readiness and build cycle

Source Control tool integrated with development environment

Ability to manage versions of the database structure and link to code

Ability to manage versions of stored procedures and link to code



Meeting the Change Management Challenge – Build Management

What are requirements for managing source code associated with builds? Ability to create builds that combine expected code changes, database

changes, and documentation changes.

Minimize time required for manually merging code.

Ability to communicate changes and functionality included in a build

Ability to manage different builds (i.e., production, QA, and development builds)



Meeting the Change Management Challenge – Documentation

What are key success factors for managing documentation changes? Ability to manage requirements versions

Ability to manage design versions

Ability to link requirements and design with code

Provide a consistent mechanism for managing changes to documentation



Meeting the Change Management Challenge – Defects / Scope Changes

What are key success factors for managing defects and scope changes? Ability to identify and track defects

Assign responsibility for correcting and validating defects

Individual

Organization

Ability to identify when defects are corrected and ready for validation

Ability to identify scope changes (versus defects)

Gain approval for scope changes and create audit trail



Meeting the Change Management Challenge - Tools

IBM Rational ClearCase Visual Studio Integration

Eclipse Integration

IBM Rational ClearCase Remote Client

IBM Rational ClearCase MultiSite

Unified Change Management

IBM Rational ClearQuest / ClearQuestWeb



Meeting the Change Management Challenge with ClearCase Provides access to code base with various tools based on network performance

and security while centralizing the management of the code base to a single repository. ClearCase for LAN

ClearCase Remote Client for VPN

ClearCase MultiSite can be used for large development efforts.

Individual developers have a work area or stream; when work is completed, it can merged into a parent stream. This functionality is provided regardless of location. UCM features provide the functionality to create work areas.

Developers have ability to merge code into a common code base. ClearCase provides an automatic merge capability where no conflicts exists. If conflicts exists it assists the developer in resolving the conflicts. UCM feature provides the functionality to gather all code in a release and compare each

individual file with a baseline version to determine if there are changes.



Meeting the Change Management Challenge with ClearCase



Meeting the Change Management Challenge with ClearCase ClearCase provides plug-in for various IDE’s including Visual Studio,

Eclipse, and WebSphere so the source control system is integrated with the development environment. Visual Studio ClearCase plug-in

Visual Studio ClearCase Remote Client plug-in

Visual Studio Integrations can be used to view/modify database artifacts such as stored procedures to the link them more closely to the code.



Meeting the Change Management Challenge with ClearCase



Meeting the Change Management Challenge with ClearCase ClearCase Components – Allows the organization and reuse of code,

structure and documentation across geographic locations. UCM provides functionality to manage components for individual workspace,

baselines and projects.



Meeting the Change Management Challenge with ClearCase ClearCase Baselines – Aggregate the results of merges from multiple

components to create a baseline which links all code, database scripts, and documentation that can be used for a build. This provides the ability to manage requirements and design versions. Once baselined the complete product could be recreated at any site at any time.

0

11

2

1

0 0 0

1

2

Release 1.0.000

Release 1.0.001



Meeting the Change Management Challenge with ClearQuest/ClearQuestWeb ClearQuest provides ability to log and manage change requests via desktop, web,

or Visual Studio plug-in. All change requests are logged and tracked through a single database regardless of

geographic location.

Users are associated with an organization so change requests can be tracked by organization.

Out of the box workflow for change requests that indicates specifically the status of change requests. Workflow includes routing for change requests to the appropriate authority for approval.

All change requests are assigned to an individual team member who completes the necessary work and routes to another team member or leader.

Change requests can be classified as either defects or enhancement requests (scope changes) through ClearQuest.

Enhancement request record type is available if needed.

Defect or Enhancement requests can be customized as needed.



Meeting the Change Management Challenge with ClearQuest/ClearQuestWeb



Tool Limitations

ClearCase Remote Client does not provide baseline functionality Use a remote desktop with ClearCase desktop to perform baseline functions

ClearCase Remote Client User Interface for creating streams and views not consistent with ClearCase desktop tool Create some “job aids” for creating web views

ClearCase does not integrate with database development environments such as SQL Server Management Studio. Create database scripts and store them in ClearCase

Backing out delivered baselines with UCM is difficult Additional streams will probably be needed to recover from any incorrect

baselines or deliveries



Project Management ChallengesProject Management Challenges

Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q1



Distributed Project Management Challenges

Controlling project progress towards goals across geographic boundaries. Scope Management

Monitor Performance

Defining and implementing operational processes and responsibilities with built-in flexibility.

Effective Governance.



Meeting Project Management Challenges – Project Progress Against Goals

What are key ways to measure progress against goals? Track project signoffs

Identify scope changes

Track software releases

Track test results

Track defects



Meeting Project Management Challenges – Operational Processes and Responsibilities What are key success factors for managing processes?

Define framework for deliverables

Requirements Templates

Design Frameworks/Templates

Defect Tracking Process

Software Release Process

Negotiate responsibilities

Define responsibilities and accountability

by person

by organization

Define communication protocols

Monitor and track progress



Meeting Project Management Challenges – Effective Governance Management

What are key requirements for effective governance? Access to project assets/artifacts for reviews or audits

Requirements

Design

Tests

Code

Defects

Standards must be clearly defined and team must understand it is their responsibility to meet them

Consider measuring team’s ability to meet standards as measured by an audit

Audits

Random

Scheduled



Meeting the Project Management Challenge with IBM Rational Tools

IBM Rational RequisitePro

IBM Rational Rose/RSM/RSA

IBM Rational ClearQuest

IBM Rational ClearCase

IBM Rational SoDA/Project Console



Meeting the Project Management Challenge with RequisitePro Requirements (features, uses cases, business rules, non-functional

requirements) can be individually tracked in RequisitePro. When an agreement is reached, the requirement can be marked as approved (signoff). Any further changes to the requirement can be tracked and approved again.

Negotiate roles for requirement types. Requirements can be assigned to specific organizations or individuals through attributes.

Test Requirements and Test Cases may be tracked in RequisitePro. They are available to the team for measuring progress against the Project Plan. Measure the number of tests complete and total number of tests.

Deliverables in RequisitePro are easily auditable for conformance to standards. Standards should be driven by document and project templates; yet they should

be flexible enough that attributes or requirement types can be easily added.



Meeting the Project Management Challenge with Rose/RSM/RSA Negotiate responsibility for diagrams, packages and classes. One

organization might be responsible for the presentation layer and another organization responsible for the data layer.

Use Case Realization signoffs which include the design needed to implement a use case.

Framework/Template for design and facilitates enforcement of standards.

Modeling standards should be flexible so that projects can scale up or scale down based on the nature of the project. Flexible standards and organization buy in, remove many barriers to governance.

Auditors should be able to access model through ClearCase for a random or a scheduled audit. A formal review should only be necessary if there are significant deficiencies.



Meeting the Project Management Challenge with ClearQuest

ClearQuest Web provides access to ClearQuest independent of geographic locations. Suggest at minimum using a VPN to implement ClearQuest Web for collaboration.

Provides the work flow for the defect management process. This allows the project manager to track responsibility for and progress on correcting defects.

Allows prioritization of defects so the most critical defects get fixed first.

Defects can be categorized by organization and functional area. This can help identify areas which need additional assistance. The number of defects can be compared to the original goals.

Scope change requests can created and tracked with ClearQuest. For outsourced projects, scope changes can come in two forms: functional scope change and technology or design scope change.

Tests can be identified and test results track with ClearQuest Web (version 7 only).



Meeting the Project Management Challenge with ClearQuest



Meeting the Project Management Challenge with ClearCase Provides ability to create a release for major project milestones. Software

release dates can be compared to project goals.

Introduces a process for integrating code from geographically distributed locations. This process allows local and geographically distributed developers to deliver their code into a single stream for integration testing.

Provides access to design, code, or document artifacts audits at any time regardless of geographic location.

Provides capability to maintain versions of signoff documents.

Provides ability to share project documents across geographic locations.



Meeting the Project Management Challenge with SoDA/Project Console

Generate requirement / design documents that can be reviewed by client, developer, or outsource provider for signoff.

Generate phase based (i.e. inception) documentation for signoff. These documents may represent milestones on the Project Plan.

Generates documents that are auditable at anytime.

Provides consolidating document reporting for any of IBM Rational tools.



Tool Limitations

RequisitePro Cannot map specific requirements to a ClearCase release. Attribute in

RequisitePro can be set up to specify release in which requirement is implemented.

ClearQuest Web Has difficulty with complex queries. Don’t make complex queries public.

ClearQuest Queries limited to a single sql statement. If more complex functions needed

write application using ClearQuest API or stored procedures to generate results.

SoDA Limitations as to the information it can pull out of ClearQuest. It cannot gather

summary information.

Steep learning curve and difficult to use. Suggest having a couple of individuals that can create SoDAs. Reuse templates as much as possible.



Demo



Quality Assurance Challenges



Quality Assurance Challenges

Who does the testing?

How much testing needs to be done?

How is test quality managed?



Meeting the Quality Assurance Challenge – Who does the testing?

Test with in-house QA organization?

Outsource partner test and deliver total package?

Outsource testing to a different company (multiple outsource partners)?



Meeting the Quality Assurance Challenge – What is good enough?

What are critical success factors for testing with outsourcing partner? Define roles and responsibilities

Set quality expectations

Delivered product

User acceptance expectations

Define risks

Define test data sets

Define test configurations

Define test environments

Define test coverage



Meeting the Quality Assurance Challenge – Test Quality

What are key success factors for managing testing processes? Test Design Deliverables

Test Asset Re-Usability

Current Project

Future Projects

Test Metrics



Meeting the Quality Assurance Challenge with IBM Rational Tools IBM Rational RequisitePro

IBM Rational ClearQuest

IBM Rational Test Manager

Automated testing IBM Rational Robot

IBM Rational Functional Tester

IBM Rational Performance Tester

IBM Rational Manual Tester

Other Tools



Meeting the Quality Assurance Challenge with RequisitePro Use to define test architecture/strategy document that forms basis for testing.

Define roles and how geographically distributed teams will collaborate for testing.

Define test risks: e.g., new technology, new tools, geographic locations, level of documentation, test experience etc.

Define test environments and test configurations.

Document estimated test coverage given requirements, design and time allocated.

Define quality expectations based on metrics. Consider measuring defects after delivery, but before User Acceptance Test and measuring defects found in User Acceptance Test.

Can create test requirements to create test plan and can create requirements to assign and track status of each test case.

Provides traceability by linking test requirements to other RequisitePro requirements.

Enables reuse / revision of test scripts for future releases.



Meeting the Quality Assurance Challenge with Test Manager Create test plan

Can link to RequisitePro Requirements or other documents

Allows creation of manual tests

Integrates with Rational Robot for automated testing



Meeting the Quality Assurance Challenge with ClearQuest Provides defect metrics

Link to requirements as needed

Create test plan (Version 7)

Provides shell for manual tester or functional tester (Version 7)



Meeting the Quality Assurance Challenge with Testing Tools Manual Tester

Provides ability to reuse test scripts

Automated Testing Rational Robot

Provides ability to create automated test scripts

Functional Tester


Integrates with Visual Studio IDE and Source Control System

Much better suited for geographically distributed development

Performance Tester


Integrates with IBM Rational ClearCase



Tool Limitations

RequisitePro Word functionality in RequisiteWeb is limited. May be more efficient to use

remote computer when writing a lot of test cases.

Not designed to allow reuse of test cases. Use manual references as needed.

Test Manager No web access – would need to access via a remote desktop or upgrade to

Clearquest version 7.0

Manual test scripts non trivial to print.

Rational Robot No web access - would need to access via a remote desktop or Citrix.

Does not support Internet Explorer 7.0 – upgrade to ClearQuest version 7.0.

Manual Tester No web access - would need to access via a remote desktop or Citrix.



Advanced Topics to Consider

ClearCase / ClearQuest Integration

Project Console Reporting

ClearCase MultiSite

ClearQuest MultiSite

Build Management with BuildForge

Rational Portfolio Manager



Summary

Communication Select appropriate tools for distributed team communications

Create necessary infrastructure based on tools

Leverage IBM Rational RequisitePro, Rose, and SoDA/Project Console to communicate application requirements and design

Change Management ClearCase allows geographically distributed teams to share code and artifacts in

individual work areas.

Unified Change Management provides process to merge changes from each individuals work area and create baselines as needed.

ClearQuest provides the ability to track changes in the form of defects or enhancement requests.



Summary

Project Management IBM Rational tools provide a means for creating a consistent and efficient

structure that lends itself to governance of geographically distributed processes.

RequisitePro, Rose, and SoDA/Project Console provide a structure for controlling requirements and design artifacts across geographic boundaries.

ClearQuest provides a means for managing change (defects and scope changes).

Quality Assurance Defining guidelines/best practices for testing with the outsource partner is

critical.

Test architecture/strategy document is essential to the success of the test effort.

Distributed testing tools appear to be less mature, but IBM Rational has made strides with ClearQuest version 7 and Functional Tester to improve testing in a distributed environment.



Questions



Matt Aloi ([email protected])

Wes Fortin ([email protected])

Thank You

alm14 © 2007 ibm corporation what keeps me rational? ibm rational software development conference...

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