This manual, named “Advanced Customization of Work Items in IBM Rational Team Concert,” offers a detailed overview of the available options for customizing work items in the IBM Rational Team Concert platform. It discusses customizing attributes of work items, editing their presentation, and the extensive possibilities for customizing work items in line with the needs of the user.
To gain additional knowledge about IBM Rational Team Concert and its defect management capabilities, you can consult IBM Rational Team Concert Defect Management Tutorial #1 here.
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The instructions in this guide are geared towards using the Eclipse (Luna Version) interface along with the RTC P2 Plugin for work item customization. To facilitate comprehension, successive screenshots have been included in the tutorial.
Before proceeding with this tutorial, bear in mind that it contains numerous images, so make sure to allocate enough time for all images to load properly.
This comprehensive guide will delve into advanced work item customization using “IBM Rational Team Concert.” We will explore numerous facets of customizing work items including how to add attributes, configure the editor presentation, and customize the attributes of work items.
Learnings from this tutorial:
- Introduction to IBM Rational Team Concert
- What Exactly Are Work Items?
- Presentation of Work Item Editor
- Customization of Attributes
- Default Values of Attributes
- Setting the Default Work Item Owner as a Logged-in User
- Validation of Attributes
- Making an Attribute Mandatory in a Certain State of Task Workflow
- Exporting Work Items to a CSV File
- Conclusion
Introduction to IBM Rational Team Concert
IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC) is a key element of the IBM Rational CLM solution. In contemporary Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solutions, project teams aim for integrated solutions providing execution capabilities. By acting as a storage for various project artifacts, IBM Rational Team Concert aids project managers and developers in keeping these artifacts within a single storage.
IBM Rational Team Concert encompasses:
- Management of Work Items
- Project Planning (supports Agile Scrum or Waterfall methodologies)
- Software Configuration Management (SCM)
- Management of Builds
By integrating these components, we can ensure comprehensive traceability of work from a developmental viewpoint.
If we delve further into the concept of work items, which are truly core to the components mentioned above, we find:
- Project plans determine and arrange work items.
- Work items are linked to changes in source code stored in the RTC SCM repository.
- Builds involve work items.
In the preceding tutorial on Defect Management, we investigated the creation of defects and executing basic customization to add attributes and configure workflows that are project-specific. In this guide, however, we will focus on enhancing the customization of work items to cater to the requirements of the project.
What Imply Work Items?
Any tasks or artifacts created to monitor tasks intended to be accomplished are work items. Examples of work items could comprise EPICs, Tasks, Story Items, Business Requirements, Retrospectives, Defects, Risks, and Impediments. IBM Rational Team Concert, by default, offers types of pre-defined work items based upon the selected development process, such as SCRUM or Waterfall. These work items are monitored in accordance with the defined workflow until they are completed.
In RTC, “Planned Items” refer to work items relevant for planning, for example, EPICs and Story Items, while those needing execution (for instance, Tasks and Defects) are termed “Execution Items.”
Apart from the pre-defined work items, it is also possible to create custom work items.
The customization of work items is done via the Eclipse (Luna Version) interface with the RTC P2 Plugin. Even though the web interface could be used, the preferred method is leveraging the Eclipse interface connected to RTC.
#1) Download Eclipse from here.
#2) Download RTC v6.0.2 – P2 plugin and install it in Eclipse from here.
#3) To install the plugin, head to Help => Install New Software in Eclipse, and choose the P2 plugin for installation.
#4) Upon installing the plugin, open up the section on Work Items. This will lead to the opening of the Team Artifacts view.
Presentation of Work Item Editor
The layout of the Work Item Editor is shown below. It comprises of sections like Details, Description, Quick Information, and tabs such as Links, Approval, etc.
To customize the attributes, follow the below steps:
#1) In the Types and Attributes section of the Project area, within the Process Configuration Tab, add an Attribute.
(Note: For a larger view, click on any image)
#2) Include the attribute to the specific Work Item Editor presentation for the work item type in question (e.g., DEFECT or TASK).
In order to add the attribute, hit Edit (as depicted above) to open the Editor Presentation.
Customization of Attributes
In the previous tutorial concerning Defect Management, we covered how to add attributes. This guide will delve into more sophisticated customization choices for these attributes like adding default values, sets of values, and rules for validation.
#1) Right-click on the connected RTC project area and choose Open.