IBM Engineering Lifecycle Optimization – Method Composer is a flexible process management platform with a method authoring tool and a process asset library to help you implement measured improvement of your enterprise, systems engineering or software delivery processes. Method Composer tools let you create, edit, manage and publish process descriptions. The included library provides best-practice process content that you can reuse as is or tailor to your unique purposes as you compose your own processes.
Find best practices and guidance on different aspects of agile development; systems engineering; real-time, embedded software development; governance; and industry-specific compliance.
Choose from over 100 customizable process plug-ins and practices or create your own process for your organization, line of business, project or team.
Search for process, artifact and report templates from predefined tool configuration assets. Use recommended metrics and guidance for setting up a system to support continuous improvement.
The included Practices Library has practices for both lean and agile software and systems development, covering everything from requirements definition through acceptance testing. It also has support for Scaled Agile Framework® (SAFe), and mappings to standards, including Automotive SPICE, ISO 26262, DODAF, DO178b/c, and IEC 62304.
A well-documented process helps teams to adopt and follow best practices and is critical to complying with standards such ISO 26262, Automotive SPICE, and CMMi. The included library of best practices for systems and software engineering can be reused or tailored to compose custom processes for your organization, line of business, project or team.
In addition to the rich Eclipse client, the web-based authoring capabilities using the MEC project template included in IBM Engineering Requirements DOORS® Next provide a parallel development environment for easy and simplified process authoring. Method elements can be defined in a browser and then imported into the MEC Eclipse client for publishing.
In-context guidance in plans and artifacts enable easy access to process documentation. Breakdown structures can be defined in Method Composer and exported to supplement plans in IBM Engineering Workflow Management and Microsoft® Project. Links from plan items take you directly to the applicable process description. Links to provide "in-context" guidance can also be added to other tools.
Process libraries can be managed with virtually any file-based source code management system. However, Method Composer provides integrated support for Jazz source control, CVS and ClearCase, which helps simplify version management and enables contributors to work in parallel. Web-based authoring with DOORS Next provides additional features, such as rich-text difference highlighting.
The optional commenting feature can be enabled in process websites. It provides threaded discussions on process pages, which are captured and managed using IBM Engineering Workflow Management work items.