To ensure that systems and software development projects stay on track and customer needs are met, requirements must be considered and managed throughout the entire development lifecycle. IBM® Rational® DOORS® is a widely recognized requirement management and traceability application for complex systems and software development. DOORS can be integrated with IBM® Rational Team Concert™ to thorough requirements management and a collaborative working environment at any point throughout the product lifecycle.

Today, communicating requirements around the globe is essential to project success. Imagine that the requirements analyst uses DOORS to establish the requirements in Australia, the business analyst adds stakeholder requests through Rational DOORS Web Access in Japan to establish critical attributes values, the systems engineers develop requirements and create traceability from the UK, and the development and QA (quality assurance) teams are located in India.

With a globally distributed team, you might not have your servers installed in one place. So how do you make them work? This article highlights skey information to set up these servers globally and provides examples. You can follow the sequential configurations to configure your working environment.

Prerequisites

• Information in this article is based on the assumption that readers have an intermediate knowledge of both Rational Team Concert and Rational DOORS.
• You also need to have Rational Team Concert installed.

The installation and configuration examples are based on DOORS 9.4 and DOORS Web Access Version 1.5, and the Rational Team Concert examples are based on Version 3.0.1.

Establish handshaking between Rational Team Concert and DOORS from different regions

This section covers the procedures for Rational Team Concert and DOORS to recognize each other (handshaking) before proceeding further with business processes between them.

Existing conditions

• DOORS and DOORS Web Access have been started, and DOORS Web Access HTTPS has been enabled.
• The project area that we have created in Rational Team Concert is called GlobLogistic.

Tip:
For the details of defining the Requirement Change Request workflow, work item type, and the mapping between the change management and work item in Rational Team Concert, read the Jazz.net article by Christopher Findlay titled Configuring Rational DOORS and Rational Team Concert to integrate with one another.

Set up Rational Team Concert to allow the connection from DOORS

1. Log in to Rational Team Concert as an administrator.
2. Go to the Application Administration page, select Application Administration and then Application, and in the Communication section in the navigation menu, click Consumers (Inbound), as shown in Figure 1.

3. Create a consumer entry for Rational DOORS. Enter a consumer name (for example, GlobLogistic Consume), enter a consumer secret, and then click Register. Make a note of the consumer secret, because you will use it later when you set up Rational DOORS.

Rational DOORS is now registered in Rational Team Concert as a consumer.

4. Navigate to the list of authorized keys, and make a note of the consumer key that has been allocated automatically. You will use it later when you set up Rational DOORS.

Add Rational DOORS to Rational Team Concert as a friend

1. In the navigation menu on the left, click Friends (Outbound), and in the Friends pane, click Add.
2. Enter a name for the connection (for example, GlobLogistic Friends).
3. Enter the details for Rational DOORS service. This service is hosted on Rational DOORS Web Access with this default URL:
   https://hostname:8443/dwa/public/rootservices
4. Enter an OAuth secret. Make a note of the OAuth secret, because you will use it later when you set up Rational DOORS.
5. Click Create Friend. A green confirmation message should display.
6. Click Next. Make a note of the provisional key. You will use it later when you configure Rational DOORS to access Rational Team Concert.
7. Click Finish.

Add Rational DOORS to the Whitelist in Rational Team Concert

1. In the navigation page on the left, click Whitelist (Outbound), and then click Add.
2. In the URL Whitelist pane, enter the URL of the Rational DOORS database. The default URL is:
   https://hostname:8443/
3. Click Add. Again, you should get a confirmation notice.

Associate Rational DOORS with the project in Rational Team Concert

1. Open the project. On the Overview page, scroll down to Associations, and click Add, as shown in Figure 2.

2. In Application, select the Rational DOORS connection. The name displayed is the same as the name that you entered in the Friends list (GlobLogistic Friends).
3. Log in from the Rational DOORS Web Access login screen.
4. Go back to Rational Team Concert.
5. In Association, select Provides - Implementation Requests.
6. In Artifact Containers, select the Rational DOORS module that you want to work with.
7. Click OK.
8. In Association, select Provides - Requirements Change Requests.
9. In Artifact Containers, select the Rational DOORS module that you want to work with.
10. Click OK, and then click Save to save the project updates.

Set up Rational DOORS to connect with Rational Team Concert

1. Log in to Rational DOORS as a database manager.
2. Right-click the database root, and select Properties. Scroll through the tabs and click the Remote Services tab.
3. Add the Rational Team Concert server to the Server List:
   1. Click Add, and enter a name for the connection (for example, DOORS_RTC).
   2. Enter the URL for the root services of the Rational Team Concert server:
      https://hostname:port/ccm/rootservices
   3. Enter the consumer key, and then the consumer secret in OAuth secret. You made a note of these when you set up Rational Team Concert.
   4. Click Register. The server is now added to the list.
4. Add collaboration links from Rational Team Concert projects to the Rational DOORS database:
   1. In the Collaboration Links pane, click Add.
   2. Select the server that you registered, DOORS_RTC. If a security warning is displayed, click Yes.
   3. On the login page for Rational Team Concert, log in.
   4. Select the project that you want to access from Rational DOORS, GlobLogistic, choose a type under Link Type, and click Add.
5. Go back to Rational DOORS, where you will see the project displayed in the Collaboration Links pane of the Remote Services tab.

Define a configuration template in rational DOORS

1. Open Rational DOORS. Click Change Management > Define Configuration Templates to get to Step 1 of the Configuration Template wizard.
2. Enter a name for the template (for example, Configuration Template), and select OAuth as the authentication method.
3. Select your configured Rational Team Concert project area (GlobLogistic), and click Next to go to the Rational Team Concert login screen.
4. If a Security Alert window is displayed, click Yes.
5. Log in to Rational Team Concert.

Step 2 of the Configuration Template wizard in Rational DOORS displays automatically.

6. Map the Rational Team Concert workflow states and actions to states and actions in the Requirements Change Management workflow.
7. When you open these URLs, an XML file is displayed to list the state identifiers and the action identifiers.
8. In this example, enter the following information according to the XML files:
   • Assigned State: demo.workitem.rcrWorkflow.state.s5
   • Review State: demo.workitem.rcrWorkflow.state.s2
   • Approved State: demo.workitem.rcrWorkflow.state.s3
   • Applied State: demo.workitem.rcrWorkflow.state.s6
9. Then, for Rational Team Concert, select:
   • In Apply Action Attribute, enter the action identifier:
     demo.workitem.rcrWorkflow.action.a1
   • In Review Action Attribute, enter the action identifier: demo.workitem.rcrWorkflow.action.a6
   • In State Attribute, enter rtc_cm:state.
   • In RCR Submit Form, select Requirement Change Request.
   • In Conflicting Proposal Behavior, select Take no action.
   • Check Show RCR Recording Report and clear the Enable Reject button in DOORS Web Access.
10. Click Next.

Step 3 of the Configuration Template wizard displays.

11. In Use Submit Form, select Plan Item, and in Use Add Form, also select Plan Item .
12. Click Next, leave Step 4 blank, click Next again, and then click Finish.

The new configuration template is now ready.

Set up the module configuration in Rational DOORS

To use the integration, you must set up the module in Rational DOORS to use the configuration template.

1. Open Rational DOORS.
2. Open the module that you want to work with, and click Change Management > Configure Module.
3. Select the Rational Team Concert template called Configuration Template. This defines the project that you will connect to in Rational Team Concert.
4. Set Integration Status to ON.
5. Set Enable Requirements Change Management to use Requirements Change Requests. You can edit the related fields, but leave these selections:
   • Create RCR Attrs View
   • Manage External Links
   • Manage Internal DOORS Links
6. Select DOORS Attributes Managed by RCRs, choose the attributes that you want to manage, and click Apply.
7. Set Enable Requirements Implementation to use Implementation Requests.
8. Check Create IR Attrs View.
9. Click Save.

You can use Rational Team Concert as the change management server now. Before you start to send requirements change requests (RCRs), make sure to complete these configurations:

10. In the new project, click the Work Items tab, and select Editor Presentations.
11. Click the + (plus sign) icon with the hover display title that says Add Presentation, as shown in Figure 3.

12. Check Non-Attribute-based Presentation, and from the drop-down menu for Kind, choose Workflow State, as shown in Figure 4.

13. Click OK.

You will need the Workflow State for the RCRs state control between DOORS and Rational Team Concert.

Settings for integrating DOORS and Rational Team Concert from different regions

When setting up DOORS and Rational Team Concert in different regions, no matter which location you place your DOORS server and client or Rational Team Concert in, the date and time settings should be the local time of that time zone. For example, if Rational Team Concert is in Beijing, China, and the DOORS server is in Berlin, Germany, the date and time setting of the DOORS server should be Central European Time, UTC+1, and the date and time setting of Rational Team Concert should be Pacific Time, UTC+8.

Table 1 provides troubleshooting tips.

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Configure DOORS servers and clients in different regions

You will be configuring the DOORS server, DOORS client, and DOORS Web Access server on different machines, of course.

Existing conditions

These instructions assume that you know how to install a DOORS server, a DOORS client, and DOORS Web Access on the same machine. In the following sections, we focus on the configuration when you install them on different machines, as indicated in Table 2, Test virtual machines.

The dwa.keystore has been generated, and the server.xml file has been modified to support HTTPS. For more details about keystore and server.xml file modification, see the blog entry for Create and navigate Implemented by links from DOORS/DWA to new Workitems in RTC entry in the DOORS or DOORW Web Access (DWA) integrations

Modify DWA_HOME\1.5.0.0\server\festival\config\festival.xml

Modify f:property as shown in Listing 1.

<!-- Configurable system properties -->
  <f:properties>
      <f:property name="licence.server.location" value="27000@license server hostname"/>
      <f:property name="display.redirector.urls" value="true"/>            
      <f:property name="published.url.prefix" value="https://DWAUK.tw.ibm.com:8443/doors
      /redirector/"/>
                           
  <f:property name="ForceHttpsForAuthenticationForOAuth" value="true"/>
  <f:property name="oauth.domain" value="https://DWAUK.tw.ibm.com:8443/dwa"/> 
  </f:properties>

Set up a DOORS database server

1. Open a command prompt and change the directory to (substitute your information for anything in italic type) DOORS_HOME\bin.
2. Execute the following command:

C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.4\bin>dbadmin -data 36677
@DOORSServerDE -dcnEnable -dcnBrokerUri tcp://DWAUK:61616 -dcnChannelName dcn 
-dwaProtocol https -dwaHost DWAUK -dwaPort 8443

3. Restart DOORS for the database addition to take effect:

C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.4\bin>doorsd -stop
C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.4\bin>doorsd -start 

4. Check the DCN services status by using the -dcnInfo parameter:

C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.4\bin>dbadmin -data 36677
@DOORSServerDE -dcnInfo

Ensure the status is "Data Change Notifications are currently enabled..."

Configure the DOORS redirector service

1. Edit the DWA_HOME\1.5.0.0\server\festival\config\doorsRedirector.properties file.

Note:
For more information, see The Rational DOORS redirector service topic in the DOORS information center.

2. Set doors.url.prefix value to match the database server that is serving Rational DOORS Web Access in the doors://host:port/ form, where host is the name of the Rational DOORS database server system and port is the port number that it uses (typically 36677).
3. In the "Set up a DOORS database server" section, set the dwa.url.prefix value to the values that you entered for -dwaProtocol, -dwaHost, and –dwaPort in the dbadmin command, as shown in Listing 2.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE properties SYSTEM "http://java.sun.com/dtd/properties.dtd"> 
<properties>
<comment>Configuration written: Mon Apr 30 10:19:07 CST 2012</comment>
<entry key="dwa.url.prefix">https://DWAUK.tw.ibm.com:8443/dwa</entry>
<entry key="doors.enable">true</entry>
<entry key="doors.url.prefix">doors://DOORSClientJP.tw.ibm.com:36677/</entry>
<entry key="dwa.enable">true</entry>
</properties>

4. Enter this command in the InterOp server:

C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.4\bin>dbadmin -data 36677
@DOORSServerDE -urlPrefix https://DWAUK:8443/dwa 

Run DOORS Web Access

1. Stop the DOORS DB service if it has not stopped yet (use the command window).

C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.4\bin>doorsd.exe -stop

2. Start the Web Broker service (double-click the .bat file):

C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS Web Access\1.5.0.0\broker.start.bat

3. Start the DOORS database server (using the command window):

C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.4\bin>doorsd.exe -start

4. Start DOORS.exe with interop (by using the command window on the DOORSClientJP machine):

C:\Program Files\IBM\Rational\DOORS\9.4\bin>doors.exe -interop -data36677
@DOORSServerDE -brokerHost DWAUK-brokerPort 61616

5. Start the DOORS Web Access server (double-click the .bat file)

C:\Program Files (x86)\IBM\Rational\DOORS Web Access\1.5.0.0\server.start.bat

6. Log on to https://DWA_server:8443/dwa by using your browser, and verify that the DOORS Web Access server is running.
7. The ID and password is same with the ID and password that you use to log in to the DOORS client.

Configure DOORS servers and clients in different regions

When installing a DOORS server, DOORS client, and DOORS Web Access on different machines with different locations and time zones, make sure that the times on the machines are synchronized. Otherwise, there will be a DOORS Web Access login problem, as explained in Table 3.

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Use case scenarios for a mobile project team

A requirement analyst is traveling from Japan to Sydney, Australia, where the key users are located. The company has set up Rational DOORS Web Access and Rational Team Concert for the development work. The subsections that follow are examples of teams from different locations working on the same development project.

Example: Create requirements in DOORS or DOORS Web Access and implement request in Rational Team Concert from different regions

Aggie, the requirements analyst, brings her laptop to Sydney from Tokyo. She will stay in Sydney for half a year, so she changes the time setting in her laptop to Australian time.

In the recent meeting with users, she has learned about some new requirements. She uses the DOORS client to add new requirements in Sydney at 13:15, June 27 (Figure 5). The time stamp of the requirements for developers in the UK will be 4:15 AM, June 27, as Figure 6 shows.

Sabrina is the senior manager who sponsors the project. She stays in Japan and uses DOORS Web Access to confirm the new requirement that links to Rational Team Concert at 12:15 PM, June 27 (UTC+9) (Figure 7).

Sharon, the project manager, needs to create Tasks for the development team so that they can start writing codes. She locates in Paris, France. She uses Rational Team Concert and creates Task from the new requirement at 3:32 PM, July 2 (Figure 8).

Subhajit, the developer who is in Mumbai, India, will see a task created on 1:02 PM, July 2 (Figure 9).

Example: Update requirements in DOORS or DOORS Web Access and existing work items in Rational Team Concert

Aggie, the requirements analyst, meets Sabrina, the senior manager, in Japan. She has further clarified requirements with the stakeholder and realized that a few of them need to be updated. She logs on to DOORS Web Access and modifies some of the requirements in Tokyo at 7:21 PM, June 26. The changes are handled through the Rational Team Concert server that is in Beijing, so the time stamp for the changed requirements will be June 26, 2012 6:21 PM, as shown in Figure 10.

Resources

Learn

• Also see Christopher Findlay's article on Jazz.net, Configuring Rational DOORS and Rational Team Concert to integrate with one another.
  
  
• For more about DOORS:
  • Browse the Rational DOORS developerWorks page for links to technical articles and many related resources.
  • Check the Rational DOORS Next Generation page on Jazz.net.
  • For detailed instructions, check the Rational DOORS Information Center.
  
  
• For more about Rational Team Concert:
  • Find Rational Team Concert articles and links to many other resources on IBM developerWorks, and check the product overview page, features and benefits, system requirements, and the user information center.
  • Check the Rational Team Concert page on Jazz.net.
  • Watch the Using Rational Team Concert in a globally distributed team webcast or a demonstration of the Dashboards and reports, or listen to the podcast about IBM Rational Team Concert and Jazz.
  
  
• Visit the Rational software area on developerWorks for technical resources and best practices for Rational Software Delivery Platform products.
  
  
• Subscribe to the developerWorks weekly email newsletter, and choose the topics to follow.
  
  
• Stay current with developerWorks technical events and webcasts focused on a variety of IBM products and IT industry topics.
  • Attend a free developerWorks Live! briefing to get up-to-speed quickly on IBM products and tools, as well as IT industry trends.
  • Watch developerWorks on-demand demos, ranging from product installation and setup demos for beginners to advanced functionality for experienced developers.
  
  
• Improve your skills. Check the Rational training and certification catalog, which includes many types of courses on a wide range of topics. You can take some of them anywhere, any time, and many of the "Getting Started" ones are free.
  
  

Get products and technologies

• Get the free trial download for Rational DOORS Web Access.
  
  
• Download Rational Team Concert from Jazz.net and try it free on up to 10 projects for as long as you want (requires registration). If you'd prefer, you can try it in the sandbox instead, without installing it on your own system.
  
  
• Evaluate IBM software in the way that suits you best: Download it for a trial, try it online, use it in a cloud environment, or spend a few hours in the SOA Sandbox learning how to implement service-oriented architecture efficiently.
  
  

Discuss

• Join the Rational DOORS forum to ask questions and participate in discussions.
  
  
• Rate or review Rational software. It’s quick and easy.
  
  
• Share your knowledge and help others who use Rational software by writing a developerWorks article. Find out what makes a good developerWorks article and how to proceed.
  
  
• Follow Rational software on Facebook, Twitter (@ibmrational), and YouTube, and add your comments and requests.
  
  
• Ask and answer questions and increase your expertise when you get involved in the Rational forums, cafés, and wikis.
  
  
• Get connected. Join the Rational community to share your Rational software expertise and get connected with your peers.
  
  

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Table of contents

• Establish handshaking between Rational Team Concert and DOORS from different regions
• Configure DOORS servers and clients in different regions
• Use case scenarios for a mobile project team
• Resources
• About the authors
• Comments

Next steps from IBM

• Try: Rational DOORS Web Access
• Demo: Rational DOORS Web Access
• Webcast: The value of extending requirements visibility and collaboration with Rational DOORS Web Access
• Buy: Rational DOORS Web Access

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