Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration integrations

Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) is a set of specifications that are developed to simplify tool integration across the software delivery lifecycle. Developed in response to some long-standing obstacles to effective integrations for lifecycle products, OSLC supports the creation of large-scale and easily maintainable integrations in a heterogeneous tools environment.

Using the concept of linked data and WWW protocols, OSLC specifications provide a standard method of building integrations independent of product APIs. For more information on linked data, go to https://www.w3.org/wiki/LinkedData and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Linked_data. OSLC specifications reduce tool incompatibilities and free users from being confined to specific products or product versions. By eliminating the requirement to map data types among applications and to synchronize data in an independent, integration-specific data store, OSLC protocols remove barriers between tools and you can access product data directly and in real time. Finally, OSLC facilitates data access without complex installations or configurations that other integrations often require.

Tools that use OSLC specifications can more easily maintain tool integrations from different vendors and better share information among tools. For example, a quality management tool can better integrate with a change management system to log and track software defects.

OSLC is an OASIS Open Project in which specifications are developed by workgroups. For an overview of OSLC, go to the OSLC website.

For an example of an OSLC integration created using Eclipse Lyo, see Introduction to linked data concepts and OSLC.