Practices Plug-ins for Rational Method Composer 7.5.0.1

*** This material is for a prior version of Rational Method Composer.
More recent material can be found in the IBM Practices library included in the latest release of Rational Method Composer. ***

Rational Method Composer includes two libraries of method content, the RUP library, and the IBM Practices library. This page provides practices to supplement the IBM Practices library. A separate page, "Rational Unified Process (RUP) Plug-ins for Rational Method Composer 7.5", provides plug-ins to supplement the RUP library.

Rational Method Composer 7.5.0.1 is installed.

Download and extract the .zip file to a convenient location. When extracting, preserve the directory structure (this is usually the default).

1. Browse the published version by opening <extracted location>/publish/index.html with your favorite browser. (Note that published versions contain a representative subset of the full content - supplementary materials such as guidelines, templates, and examples have been removed).
   The remaining steps describe how to incorporate the practice content into your own RMC library.
2. Start Rational Method Composer (RMC).
3. Load the Practice Library. To load the practice library:
   1. Copy the Practice Library from the default installation directory \rmc\lib.7.5.prac to a convenient location. For example, you could copy "C:\Program Files\IBM\RMC75_1\rmc\lib.7.5.prac" to "c:\practices". (Short pathnames are preferred, as there is a 256 character pathname limit in Windows(R) which can cause problems if exceeded).
   2. Go to File > Open > Method Library.
   3. Type or Browse to select the directory containing the Practice Library copy.
   4. Click Finish. The Practice Library is now loaded.
4. Go to File > Import and choose Method Plug-ins
5. Uncheck the Use Default Directory checkbox
6. Browse to the unzip location from step 1. Select the directory <unzip location>/imports/
7. Review the library changes presented in the next screen and click Finish

The plug-ins will be imported into your library and you will see them in the Library View.
7. If the unzip location contains a directory named ".tags", copy the contents of this directory into the ".tags" directory in your practice library.
8. Publish the predefined configuration included with the download, or create and publish a new configuration (see the online help topic "Publish Practices").

Note: Updates to existing plug-ins can cause errors in existing configurations. In general, it is always safe to apply the "quickfix" to errors in a configuration.

The following supplemental practices are available for download:


Determine Application Modernization Strategy

This practice defines an application modernization roadmap, including strategies to resolve cost and time-to-value issues. It uses several techniques, including workshops and deep code analysis, to provide a better understanding of the targeted application and how it should evolve.

Example Practices Customization - Company ABC

A example set of plug-ins for how a company (in this case Company ABC) customizes practices. This example is described in more detail in the white paper "Example Practices Customization - Company ABC" (http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=2360&uid=swg27017177)

IBM Practices for Agile Delivery
These are described and made available for download here http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=2360&uid=swg24025692 .

Product Portfolio Management Practices

The Product Portfolio Management practice (PPM) provides the process guidance and governance needed to manage a portfolio of products. The PPM practice relies on a work pipeline model, which is used to group requests coming into the portfolio into common categories so as to facilitate their organization and streamline their processing within the portfolio. This practice is also based on a stage-gate model to manage investment risk, which defines a roadmap for progressing a product from initial idea to availability, with specific decision points or gates for approval.

Rational SOMA 2.9 Practices

The Rational Service-Oriented Modeling and Architecture (SOMA) 2.9 practices define a SoaML-based model-driven approach for developing service-oriented architectures and systems. The download file includes practices for service specification, service identification, and service realization. The download file also includes the Use-case Driven Business Modeling practice, which produces business models for input to services identification. The Use-case Driven Business Modeling practice is also available as a stand-alone download.

Systems Engineering

This is the first release of a set of new 9 practices for Systems Engineering:

• Elaborate Draft System Requirements Specification
• Detailed Use-Case Requirements Analysis
• Build and Validate Use Cases
• Architectural Analysis - Key System Functions
• Architectural Analysis - Operation Based
• Trade Study - Weighted Objectives Method
• Architectural Design - Use-Case Based
• Architectural Design - Operation Base
• Joint Realization

Three configurations are provided to support different usage scenarios:
1. Systems Engineering:

• Main usage scenario: reference only, entry point for all the material, presents all nine SE practices, including alternatives(see the SE Lifecycle/SE Overview node in the browser tree of the published website)
• Organized by practice, lifecycle, practice-specific workflows, artifacts, roles

2. Systems Engineering - SRS-based Alternative:

• Presents only the practices involved on the"use-case focused" branch
• Main characteristics: SRS centric, KSF (Key System Functions - grouping operations based on a set of principles), executable models are built and validated through execution, presented in the context of a V-based lifecyle

3. Systems Engineering - Operation-based Alternative:

• Presents only the practices involved on the"operation focused" branch
• Main characteristics: SRS optional, viewpoint-oriented approach where viewpoints are driven by stakeholders' concerns, executable models are built and validated through execution, presented in the context of an iterative, RUP-like lifecycle

Use-case Driven Business Modeling

The Use Case Driven Business Modeling practice establishes a description of an organization for the purposes of business information, business process improvement, and Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) adoption. Use case techniques and UML diagrams are used to describe the value provided by a business and how that business fulfills that value. A business model is produced that describes the realization of business use cases by interacting business elements such as business workers, business entities, services, and systems.

User-story Driven Development

This practice describes how to capture requirements with user stories. With user stories, software development teams and stakeholders keep requirements brief, as details are intentionally deferred to when implementation starts. This technique also minimizes overhead of changing requirements, as it uses an informal requirements specification. This practice also describes how user stories influence other activities, such as planning, development, and testing.
The latest version of this practice can be downloaded as part of the IBM Practices for Agile Delivery http://www.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=2360&uid=swg24025692 .
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