Building a Rational Software Configuration Management Environment for the IBM e- Business Platform

Transcription

1 Building a Rational Software Configuration Management Environment for the IBM e- Business Platform by Eric Carr, Manager Jian Wei, Senior Consultant Experio Solutions As applications that support critical business processes continue to grow more complex, there is a growing need to maintain control over development environments with effective software configuration management (SCM). In this article, we will explore the advantages and the steps involved in integrating Rational ClearCase with both IBM VisualAge for Java (VAJ) and Macromedia Homesite to create an environment with SCM capabilities. Note: Although we strongly believe that every CM environment needs an effective change control system -- ClearQuest, in our case -- our main focus in this article will be on the integration of ClearCase within the CM environment.

2 Despite widespread industry acknowledgment that orderly processes enable productivity, it s not unusual for software development organizations to have either undefined or loosely observed processes and procedures. Organizations like these represent the "Initial" level (Level One) of the CMM, or Capability Maturity Model, developed by the Carnegie Mellon Software Engineering Institute (see sidebar). 1 As the CMM explains, for these companies, "The software process is characterized as ad hoc, and occasionally even chaotic. Few processes are defined, and success depends on individual effort." How does an organization move beyond this chaos? First, managers must understand that they need the control an SCM tool can bring to any software development environment. A tool alone, however, is not enough. The organization also needs to clearly define processes, procedures, and policies in relation to its unique development environment. Then, once a plan is in place, it can use SCM tools to enable development teams, business analysts, and managers to move out of CMM Level One. If they hope to remain competitive, management will need to invest the time, energy, and money required to define, track, control, and manage their specific software development process. Closing the SCM Gap IBM is one of the leading e-business companies, and the WebSphere Application Server, Domino Server, IBM HTTP Server, and DB2 Universal Database lie at the heart of their e-business offerings. Their leadership position is based on several key factors: 1. IBM s products run on multiple platforms (NT, Windows 2000, Sun Solaris, AIX, AS400, etc.) 2. IBM s products are able to interface with most backend systems, such as Oracle, SQL, DB2, SYS IBM has standardized its product development efforts around the J2EE industry standard.

3 The company s e-business development tools do, however, have a few shortcomings; software configuration management, for example, is not integral to the offering. Although IBM s VisualAge for Java (VAJ) has an internal version control engine -- ENVY -- for tracking development efforts within VAJ, most organizations use other technologies for Web development. This leaves an SCM gap for organizations using IBM s e- business development environment. To help organizations fill this gap, IBM announced last year that it would standardize on Rational ClearCase and Rational ClearQuest, a defecttracking and change management tool, to create a strategic SCM solution. This means that organizations using IBM s e-business tools -- along with other development tools -- can now define, track, and control their software development efforts. Why did IBM choose Rational? The answer is very simple: Rational is one of the few companies that provides a full line of product offerings for the entire software development lifecycle. Planning an SCM Environment The key to creating an optimum SCM environment with Rational ClearCase and ClearQuest is the old adage, "Plan the work, then work the plan." Companies can get the most from these tools by doing some preimplementation planning, focusing on how and what developers, business analysts, testers, and managers will need to do their work. The planning process should include: 1. Understanding and documenting current software development processes and procedures. 2. Re-defining processes in which errors or misunderstandings can occur. 3. Establishing clearly defined roles and responsibilities. 4. Establishing policies that govern the ways in which each development environment will function. 5. Identifying how Rational products will help in the software development lifecycle. 6. Creating a CM (configuration management) plan. Software teams

4 should not attempt to implement the ClearCase architecture and design within the development environment until a CM plan, policies, and procedures are in place. The clear vision that results from this planning process allows organizations to architect and design the following items: 1. Hardware and software requirements. 2. ClearCase and ClearQuest integration with VAJ and other development tools. 3. An SCM environment using either Base or Unified Change Management (UCM). 4. ClearCase objects (VOBs, Projects, Promotion Levels, etc.). 5. Individual or shared environment areas. 6. A plan for populating the ClearCase SCM environment. 7. Client and server patch level updates. 8. A production baseline and a baseline naming convention. 9. An employee training plan. 10. An implementation plan for development tools (e.g., WebSphere Studio or IBM VAJ) that can carry development efforts through to production. These tools allow managers to control when and what code is moved into production (see Figure 1). 11. A plan for how developers will use VAJ Team versus a local repository (see Figure 2).

5 Figure 1: SCM Architecture for the IBM e-business Development Platform Click here to view larger image Figure 2: Plan for Repository Use in an IBM VAJ Environment Case Study: Integrating Rational ClearCase with

6 IBM VisualAge for Java and Macromedia Homesite The following is based on our experience with an actual client. Company Profile A Midwestern, Fortune 500 banking company, the 22 nd largest in the US $42 billion in assets Ranks among the top twenty US bank holding companies in small business lending Ranks first among the nation's top fifty bank holding companies in commercial loans as a percent of total assets Business Issues Loosely followed processes and procedures for development Difficulties maintaining correct versions of code in transition from test to production environment Difficulties handling change requests Difficulties ensuring that developers are using the correct version of the code Resolution Our client recently purchased the Rational Suite to use both the tools and methodology for change control, requirements gathering, Q/A testing, and much more. Based on the business issues described above, the bank s primary goal was to gain better control over their Web development efforts. We assisted them with planning and installing Rational ClearCase to help achieve this goal. Since this client was at Level One on the CMM scale, we decided that the

7 best strategy was to use the Rational ClearCase UCM approach. The client s primary e-business development tools included IBM VAJ, IBM WebSphere Studio, and Macromedia Homesite. Our objectives were to tightly integrate Rational ClearCase with VAJ and Homesite and to streamline ClearCase UCM operations to perform directly within VAJ and Homesite workspaces. Our first step was to implement Rational ClearCase. Below are the procedures we followed. Set Up the Rational ClearCase Server 1. Apply latest patches to ClearCase server (v4.0 or later). 2. Create a project VOB (Versioned Object Base). 3. Create VOB components, each corresponding to an IBM VAJ project. 4. Create a ClearCase VOB component for the HTML and JSP elements developed in Homesite. 5. Create a ClearCase project containing all the components with an initial baseline. ClearCase will automatically create an integration stream for the project. Set Up the Rational ClearCase Client 1. Apply latest patches and verify connectivity to the ClearCase server (v4.0 or later). 2. Join the ClearCase project. ClearCase will automatically create a development stream. 3. Create a development view to work with the development stream. Each view is represented as a network drive mapped on the local machine. Each VOB component becomes a directory under the drive mapping (e.g., L:\VAJ_VOB). The component directory is equivalent to a SCCI (Microsoft Software Configuration Control Interface) working directory.

8 Prepare IBM VAJ 1. Apply the latest patches and e-fix to IBM VAJ Enterprise Version Install Rational ClearCase integration options to IBM VAJ under Start>Program Files>ClearCase Administration>Rational Integration with VAJ. Integrate Rational ClearCase with IBM VAJ 1. Start the VAJ Remote Application Access API. 2. Select VAJ project in VAJ workspace and click Tools>External Version Control>Add to Version Control to launch the integration process. 3. Select SCCI interface and follow the wizard (treat the ClearCase component in the development view as if it is a SCCI working directory). 4. A green arrow will appear next to your VAJ project to indicate that it has been added to version control. Arrows will also appear next to any types in your project. Arrows will not appear next to packages. Rational ClearCase functionality, including UCM options, will then become available under Tools > Rational ClearCase Additional Tools.

9 Figure 3: Integrating Rational ClearCase with IBM VisualAge for Java and Macromedia Homesite Click here to view larger image Integrate Rational ClearCase with Macromedia Homesite 1. Create a Homesite project directly under the development view (e.g., L: drive). 2. Add the Homesite project under version control, and it will automatically pick up all the file elements in ClearCase (you should have everything loaded into the ClearCase server to establish an initial baseline first). 3. If you see a green arrow next to the project and the file elements underneath it, then the integration was successful. Was This Integration Worth the Effort? Our experience on this project confirms our belief that a repeatable configuration control process makes an e-business development team fundamentally more efficient and more resilient in the face of changes. In this case, integration of Rational ClearCase with IBM VAJ and Macromedia Homesite allowed the client s project managers to enforce a well-defined Rational UCM process with minimum overhead for the development team. Now, the development team is much better equipped to respond to change

10 requests. The baselines established in ClearCase clearly indicate which versions of the software are in production, UAT testing, QA testing, integration testing, etc., and this ensures that developers always start their work with the right version of the software components (e.g., Java Class Files). Ultimately, this translates into big cost savings because of the drastic reduction in re-work. There are other advantages as well. From the project manager s perspective, the ClearCase checkin/check-out mechanism associated with the activity-based, automatic tracking of change sets, provides better control over the dynamic development environment. A project manager can easily track the overall project progress, as well as each developer s ongoing efforts, and the major releases/baselines in relationship to the project plan. With ClearCase and UCM in place, organizations can even generate a bill of materials based on the change sets of activities that go into each major release. There s a big payoff in ease of maintenance, too. Because a ClearCase baseline represents a snapshot of the development environment, the support team can easily schedule regular backup and server tuning. And if various development workspaces ever go down, the development artifacts can be quickly recovered. What was the investment? In addition to the Rational ClearCase license and installation cost, this project took three experienced consultants eight weeks to draft a detailed configuration management (CM) plan, implement and document all the integration links (e.g., SCCI interface to VAJ repository), establish and test drive various ClearCase setup strategies, and finally put the entire development environment under ClearCase configuration management control. Our observations, as well as our client s feedback, indicate to us that all the efforts and investment were well worth it. Rational ClearCase will pay for itself because it gives project stakeholders tremendous control over the e-business development environment. As more and more IT organizations pursue ISO or CMM certification, Rational s ClearCase tool, along with the underlying UCM process, is worth consideration. This technology lays a solid foundation for a repeatable configuration management process, and it can support an overall process improvement effort as well as regulatory mandates in some industries. Lessons Learned

11 It is important to educate clients on an ongoing basis about the importance of SCM. We stress that SCM is not optional, but is instead a key element in building a robust e-business infrastructure. Early in the project described above, we made a conscious decision to use Rational s ClearCase UCM process because it represents the best practice in the industry, and it is well documented in the Rational Unified Process (RUP ). Using UCM allowed us to focus on resolving the technical issues without affecting the overall project plan. This was a key advantage, given our eight-week timeframe and resource constraints. We also found that having a designated Rational contact person from the client team was crucial to ensure proper knowledge transfer and continuity of support. It would have been even more beneficial if that person had also been involved early in the process, while we were defining the project approach and deliverables. In terms of the integration itself, integrating Rational ClearCase with Homesite is extremely intuitive and easy. Although the current level of integration between Rational ClearCase and IBM VisualAge for Java via the Microsoft SCCI interface is cumbersome and slow at times, we expect that with the intensified partnership between IBM and Rational, the integration mechanism will become faster and easier in later versions of IBM VAJ and Rational ClearCase. IBM has indicated that it may retire the SCCI interface and VAJ built-in ENVY version control engine in favor of Rational ClearCase, and that it will use a Standards Committee endorsed standard such as Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning (WebDAV). From a network administration standpoint, we have found that ClearCase tends to generate a large volume of network traffic and has a relatively high demand on round trip response time. We were able to resolve all the network timeout problems by experimenting with different network settings; the network packet size seems to be the most significant factor on this project. Rational support has advised us to be cautious when adjusting the network packet size, as it may corrupt ClearCase VOBs. Overall, we were satisfied with the experience we had with Rational technical support. IBM technical support was also helpful with the VAJ to ClearCase integration. What s Next? Today s Web sites typically include four major functional areas: content delivery, personalization, data mining, and e-commerce application. Many high-end content management tools such as Vignette can provide integrated services for the first three functional areas. But given the dynamics of content and content template changes, there is a great and ever-growing need for configuration management. We highly recommend that organizations take a broad view of their Web site and introduce CM to manage not only application code (Java, HTML, JSP, and so forth) but also Web content. Rational s latest product, Rational Suite ContentStudio, offers tight integration with the Vignette V/5 platform. In our view it is a logical step for any client who has made an investment in either Rational

12 ClearCase or Vignette to take advantage of the features offered in Rational Suite ContentStudio, and to build a truly integrated CM methodology for the entire Web site. Configuration management is only one aspect of managing the software development lifecycle. To fully exploit the level of control and efficiency that the Rational Unified Process (RUP) can give to an IT team, we suggest that organizations look into integrating ClearCase with other Rational products, such as RequisitePro for business requirements management and ClearQuest for change management. Using ClearQuest with ClearCase provides an even more powerful UCM process than ClearCase alone to integrate activities with artifacts in the development lifecycle. As most of our clients tend to purchase the entire Rational Suite, we feel that integrating the full set of products as well as the entire RUP process is not only beneficial but also very cost effective. Experio Solutions, a Hitachi company, is a single-source company delivering dynamic and sustainable end-to-end business solutions designed to accelerate business performance for growth-oriented organizations. As an IT consulting firm, Experio consultants average more than 12 years of experience, designing and implementing practical business solutions enabled by technology. Headquartered in Dallas, the company has 18 offices throughout the US. For more information, visit Footnotes 1 Also see For more information on the products or services discussed in this article, please click here and follow the instructions provided. Thank you! Copyright Rational Software 2001 Privacy/Legal Information