 | Level: Introductory Rational staff, Staff, IBM
13 Jan 2004 IBM Rational software tools offer you proven solutions for common development problems. This roadmap helps you find the right tool to solve your problem. 1 September 2003 IBM Rational software tools offer you proven solutions for common development problems. This roadmap helps you find the right tool to solve your problem. If you've heard about software development best practices and tools from IBM Rational, but you're not sure how they can help you-or if you're unsure of the right place to start in the Rational area within IBM developerWorks-then this is the place for you.
The roadmap below lists the common development problems you can expect to encounter, and then guides you to the specific area within the developerWorks Rational section where you can find solutions to those problems. Click on the links underneath the Rational Tool section of each Problem Scenario to find those solutions.
You can see all the common development problems we've identified in the Problem Scenario list just below this introduction. The name of each Problem Scenario links to the pertinent starting place on the roadmap.
Within the roadmap, you'll first find the Problem Scenario itself, where we state the problem as simply as possible, for example, "Not enough time to write good code." Next, under Elaboration, you'll find a slightly expanded description to help you understand the problem ("Too much time pressure on my team" and so on). Next under Root Causes, we identify some of the possible causes of the problem. (In our example, one of the possible causes is "Too much time spent on requirements and design).
Next, under Solution, we propose the Rational-recommended high-level solution to the problem. These general solutions come straight out of the Rational Unified Process; in fact, each solution is actually one of the standard six RUP "best practices." In our example, the applicable best practices that will solve the problem are "Develop Iteratively" and "Manage Requirements." If you're not familiar with the RUP Best Practices, we recommend you read the Rational whitepaper that introduces them and visit the RUP area with the Rational Developer Domain. (For your convenience, we also link to the whitepaper from each mention of a best practice in the roadmap.)
The next two sections, Rational Toolset and Rational Tool, provide the names of the tool family and the specific tool(s) you can use to implement a solution. In the case of our example, these are "Configurable Process" and "Rational Unified Process," respectively. The links under Rational Tool in each scenario lead you directly to areas within the Web site about each tool, with solutions you can start applying today to help address your development problems. The specific product areas contain links to technical introductions to the products and how-to articles, examples, tutorials, and other materials to help you start solving real development problems by using Rational tools and best practices.
We hope the roadmap provides you a quick, intuitive way of finding what you are looking for in the developerWorks Rational section. If you're ever not sure what you are looking at, you can find a legend at the bottom of the roadmap that describes the terminology we just described. (Following the links from the numbers next to each team also takes you to the legend.)
We will continue to develop the roadmap, and the rest of the Rational developer Web site, to help make it easier for you to find what you want and to start benefiting from Rational technology-based solutions to your development issues. If you have ideas for us, please send them to editors@us.ibm.com and we will do our best to respond to them.
Problem Scenarios
|
Problem: My project is late
| |
Elaboration2
- We can't define the scope of our project
- We can't get resources for our project
Root causes3
- Lack of skilled staff
- Poor planning process
- Unrealistic planning
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
Rational Tool6
- The Rational Unified Process can help you plan and manage your project so that you can understand the time and resources you will need to complete it on time, and with the resources you have available.
| |
Problem: My project is over budget
| |
Elaboration2
- Management doesn't know how to budget the right way
- We don't know how to plan our projects properly
Root causes3
- Poor Management practices
- Unrealistic planning/expectations
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
Rational Tool6
- The Rational Unified Process can help you plan and manage your project so that you can understand the time and resources you will need to complete it according to budget
| |
Problem: My project is experiencing feature creep
| |
Elaboration2
- The set of requirements we started with is not even close to what we have now
- We have lots of stakeholders adding stuff at the last minute
Root causes3
- Poor Management practices
- Unrealistic planning/expectations
- Poorly understood requirements process
- Unrealistic expectations
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Requirements and Analysis
- Configurable Process
Rational Tool6
- The Rational Unified Process can help manage project to help cut down on requirement expansion
- In order to manage your requirements better, Rational RequisitePro software can help you write and scope requirements more effectively.
| |
Problem: My application doesn't meet the requirements
| |
Elaboration2
- My application does not perform according to specification
- The requirements don't really address the business needs
Root causes3
- Poor communicationor understanding of requirements
- Poorly understood business process
- Development process not driven by Requirements
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Requirements and Analysis
Rational Tool6
- So that you can better communicate and understand your application's requirements, we recommend you utilize Rational RequisitePro, software that will make requirements gathering and usage much easier in your project.
| |
Problem: Requirements change during my project
| |
Elaboration2
- They changed so much, I can't keep track of them
- We started out with a great set, but it keeps growing every week!
Root causes3
- Poorly understood requirements process
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Requirements and Analysis
- Software Configuration Management
Rational Tool6
- In order to manage your requirements better, Rational RequisitePro software can help you track requirements more easily.
- The Rational ClearCase change management tool will help you develop and implement a process for version ing and keeping track of your requirements and other parts of your project.
| |
Problem: Designing our application is taking too long
| |
Elaboration2
- We really can't understand the designs once they're complete
- We'd like to be able to use or buy some stuff to help us develop faster
Root causes3
- Application is not being modeled properly
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Visual Modelling and Development
Rational Tool6
- Rational XDE and Rational Rose, Rational's design and analysis tools, can help you in designing and then implementing your code so that you're able to get your application out to market quicker that you planned.
| |
Problem: We have to re-invent stuff every time we start working on an application
| |
Elaboration2
- We'd love to be able to re-use some of the stuff we've written before
Root causes3
- No artifact storage
- Do not know how to properly re-use architectures and development artifacts
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Visual Modelling and Development
Rational Tool6
- Rational XDE and Rational Rose, Rational's design and analysis tools, can help you create modular code, and then give you the ability to re-use, integrate, extend, and update it more easily into your future projects.
| |
Problem: I'm having problems understanding real-time system behavior
| |
Elaboration2
- Real time code is very difficult; there is a much higher learning curve
- It's making it harder to develop my application
- It also makes it harder to support the capabilities my customers want
Root causes3
- Cannot capture and communicate system design properly
- Complex code is intricate and has different types of challenges to overcome
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Visual Modeling and Development
Rational Tool6
- Rational Rose RealTime is Rational's premiere real-time modeling and analysis tool. Not only can it help you understand the intricacies of real-time software, it also helps you to generate quality code to use in your embedded applications
| |
Problem: Our code base is too complex
| |
Elaboration2
- My application can't integrate well with other applications.
- It's hard to update the code to a new technology or version
Root causes3
- Poor design/ architecture
- Did not develop and analyze a model before I started writing code
- Did not write software as set of small components
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Visual Modeling and Development
Rational Tool6
- Rational XDE and Rational Rose, Rational's design and analysis tools, can help you simplify your code base so it can be integrated, extended, and updated more easily.
| |
Problem: I have to work with different tools, GUIs for each part of the process
| |
Elaboration2
- Too many different interfaces, features to master
- Too much specialization required
Root causes3
- My tools are not integrated with my development environment
- My process does not help me choose tools appropriately
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Visual Modeling and Development
- Configurable Process
Rational Tool6
- The Rational XDE design tool integrates with many significant development environments.
- The Rational Unified Process can help you develop the process that works best for your project.
| |
Problem: Not enough time to write good code
| |
Elaboration2
- Too much time pressure on my team
- We're always late
- We write code that breaks or doesn't meet the defined requirements
Root causes3
- Too much time spent on requirements and design
- Trying to address too many requirements at once
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
Rational Tool6
- The Rational Unified Process can help you determine a schedule that lets you spend the right amount of time at each phase of the process
- Rational ReqPro software can help you write and scope requirements
| |
Problem: Development is too expensive
| |
Elaboration2
- My team is always going over its budget and schedule
- We end up canceling much-needed projects
Root causes3
- Poor overall project planning
- We try to do too much at the same time
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
Rational Tool6
- The Rational Unified Process can help you plan and manage your project so that you can understand the time and resources you will need to complete it according to budget
| |
Problem: Project changes are out of control
| |
Elaboration2
- Too many people are changing the code
team members not sure they are working on most current version of project
- Can't track specific
- Too many people are changing the code
team members not sure they are working on most current version of project
- Can't track specific changes; not sure who made which changes and when changes were made
Root causes3
- Weak process for change control/ management
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Software Configuration Management
Rational Tool6
- The Rational ClearCase change management tool will help you develop and implement a process for version and change management of your code and other parts of your project
| |
Problem: My application performs poorly, crashes too frequently, or can't scale to meet my users' demands
| |
Elaboration2
- Code hangs, freezes, or doesn't load quickly or at all
Root causes3
- Runtime errors and memory leaks in code
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Visual modeling and development
Rational Tool6
- The Rational PurifyPlus Family of products helps you perform code runtime analysis to uncover reliability, performance and scalability, and durability problems in your application
| |
Problem: QA testing takes too long
| |
Elaboration2
- Can't cover all areas needed
functional, regression and reliability testing-with resources and time available
- Not uncovering bugs fast enough
Root causes3
- Process not automated
- Not effectively managing test plans and test cases
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
Rational Tool6
| |
Problem: Can't effectively track bug/defect resolution
| |
Elaboration2
- Bug count out of control and not being managed to closure
- Development team can't reproduce bugs
Root causes3
- Weak process for entering and tracking defects
Solution4
Rational Toolset5
- Software Configuration Management
Rational Tool6
- Rational ClearQuest provides process and functionality you can use to enter, prioritize, track, and close all software defects
|
1.) Problem scenario: Short description of a major problem faced by a development team.
2.) Elaboration: What this problem looks like to you and your team
3.) Root causes: Some of the significant possible causes of the problem
4.) Solution: A procedural solution to the problem, as defined by the Rational Unified Process (RUP)
5.) Rational Toolset: Name of the set of Rational software tools that help you implement a solution to the problem
6.) Rational Tool: The specific Rational tool you can use to implement a solution, with a link to the appropriate area within the Rational Developer Domain where you can find how-to articles and examples to help you solve the problem.
About the author | | | This article is brought to you by the Rational staff at developerWorks. |
Rate this page
| |
