IBM Rational Team Concert Defect Management Tool Tutorial

IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC) is one of the key components of IBM Rational CLM solution which helps the project managers and developers in maintaining certain artifacts within one single repository.

In this tutorial, we are going to take an in-depth look at Defect Management using “IBM RATIONAL TEAM CONCERT” which is based on version 6.0.2.

NOTE: This tutorial has many images so allow it to load properly. 

IBM Rational CLM (Collaborative Life Cycle Management) is an application lifecycle management solution.

Introduction to IBM Rational CLM based on JAZZ platform

It includes integration of the following 3 tools:

• IBM Rational DOORS NG (Previously known as IBM Rational Requirements Composer)
• IBM Rational Team Concert
• IBM Rational Quality Manager

With the integration of the above 3 tools together in one single platform, it gives you requirements management, project planning, version control, build management, test management, and reporting.

More information on IBM Rational CLM can be found here.

Introduction to IBM Rational Team Concert

As mentioned in the above section IBM Rational Team Concert (RTC) is one of the key components of IBM Rational CLM solution.

Today with the ALM solution, project teams are looking at a solution which is integrated with execution. IBM Rational Team Concert helps the Project Managers and Developers to maintain some artifacts within one single repository.

The artifacts include:

• Work Item Management
• Project Planning (Supports Agile Scrum or Waterfall)
• Software Configuration Management (SCM)
• Build Management

All the above components are well integrated to provide complete traceability of the work that happens from the development perspective.

Let’s take a look at the Work Items which are the core of other components listed above

• Project plans, define and organize the work items
• Changes in source code part of the RTC SCM repository will be linked to the work items
• Builds include the work items

So Work Items are those artifacts or tasks that are created to track the work that is to be completed. Example of Work Items could include EPIC’s, Story Items, TASK, Business Needs, Risk, Retrospective, Defects, and Impediments.

In IBM Rational Team Concert by default, the work items are available for use as per the process that your project would be using i.e. SCRUM or Waterfall. These work items are tracked to note completion as per workflow defined.

In RTC the work items which are relevant for planning are called Planned Items (e.g. EPIC and Story items) and those which have to be worked on (e.g. TASK and Defect) are called Execution Items.

In this tutorial, we will also learn more about Defect creation and how they can be customized for project use.

Creating Defects in IBM Rational Team Concert

Let’s take a look at how a defect is traced in a typical SCRUM process structure

#1) To create a defect. Login to RTC using the URL https://<ServerName>:9443/ccm/web

Click on the project to get onto the main dashboard area of the RTC project.

#2) From Work Items menu, select ‘Create Work Item –> Defect’ as shown below

#3) The Defect form comes up automatically

(Note: Click on any image for an enlarged view)

#4) As shown above, in the form, the Overview TAB contains some attributes and Summary option, which is a mandatory one to be updated. There are other tabs as well, which include Links, Approvals, and History. In the above form apart from the pre-defined attributes, you can also add any custom attributes based on project needs.

#5) Let’s add some more information and Save the Defect. Once you save the defect, an ID number will be assigned and a State Workflow will also be available to take the work item to completion. The workflow like the attributes can also be customized and I will show that as well.

#6) In one of my previous tutorial on IBM Rational Quality Manager, I have explained how to create a defect from Test Case Execution. This shows how defect creation can be integrated with RQM.

Creating Query

Let’s now create a query to view the defect that has been created. Later on, the query can be added to the RTC project dashboard to view various statistics around the defects.

#1) The defect created above has ID 229. If you know the ID number or some words from the Summary you can do the following to search it.

#2) In the Search field enter the ID number or some words from the summary

The above procedure is for a quick search. In order to add results to the dashboard, a Query has to be created.

#3) To create a query from the Work Items menu select ‘Create Query’

#4) Enter a name and click on ‘Add Condition’

Add conditions to specify and then select the following

Type = Defect

Owned By = Current User

Click on Save and Run. The defect which we have just created is displayed below. No SQL statements need to be created. Everything can be done through the query itself.

We will name this query as ‘Defects Owned by Me’ and use it later in the tutorials and add it to the dashboard.

Customization of Defect form

In this section, we will see how to add custom attributes and do the basic workflow changes. The customization can be done if the user who logged in has Jazz Project Admin privileges.

For more details on privileges please check here.

#1) In order to add custom attributes, click the Administration icon and select ‘ Manage This Project Area’.

#2) Click on Work Items that come up on the Admin screen

Every Work Item type has an Editor Presentation which is actually how the form will finally look for an end user. Once the Attributes are defined it has to be added to the Editor Presentation.

#3) Click on Add under the ‘Attributes section‘.

#4) Let’s assume that I would like to add a custom attribute called ‘Tester Comments‘ of type Large String. Then click on Add and enter as shown below. Look at the different types that an attribute can hold. ID is a database entry and it cannot contain spaces.

#5) Click on Save

#6) Click on the Edit icon next to the Editor Presentation of Defect.

#7) Click on ‘Add Presentation’ in the Defect Editor Presentation and then select the attribute just created

Click OK

#8) The newly created attribute is added to the presentation. You can re-arrange the attribute by dragging it to the appropriate position.

Click on Save at the top of the screen

#9) Click on Explore Project to go back to the dashboard

#10) Now create a new defect (Work Items -> Create Work Item -> Defect ) and the new attribute will be visible

#11) Do the following to add value to an existing Enumeration which will be a drop-down. In the Administration, page go to Work Items -> Select Priority.

Click on Add in the Literals section. And add a value named ‘Very High’

Click Ok and then Save.  Create a new Defect to check if the value is visible.

#12) Now let us look at the workflow for the Defect work item type and modify the same

#13) In the above Administration page of the project, the pre-defined flow is shown and the transition from one state to another is based on actions which trigger the transition. Let’s add a transition from In Progress a Need Info and from Need Info back to In Progress. For that now we need to add a state called Need Info and an action called Need Info.

#14) Under the States, section click on Add and enter the name of a state, as Need Info. Click OK.

#15) The state Need Info is now added.

#16) Under the Actions section click on Enter the Name as Need Info and Target State as Need Info.

Click OK.

#17) The action is now listed

#18) Save the project area

#19) Back in the transition table do the following changes to modify the workflow and Save the project area

#20) Click on Explore Project and check in the dashboard of the project. Create a new Defect to test the changes. The Need Info action will be available now.

Dashboard in IBM Rational Team Concert

We initially created a query called ‘Defects Owned by Me’ earlier in this tutorial. We will now use it to show the query in a graphical view. Click on Explore Project if you are still on the Admin page and the dashboard will now be visible.

In the dashboard area click on Add Widget

Search for Statistics and add the widget Work Item Statistics and close the Add Widget window.

Click on Select Query

Browse to select the query created and then click OK

Select Owned By for Parameter and click OK.

A bar chart is now displayed. We have filtered based on Owned By Attribute. Similarly, you can filter based on any other attribute like status, priority etc., based on your need.

Conclusion

In this tutorial, we learned how to create a Defect in IBM Rational Team Concert and how easy it is to customize. IBM Rational Team Concert is a very powerful tool and there is a lot more to offer from a customization point of view, which in turn will benefit Project Managers and the Developers.

In my upcoming tutorials on IBM Rational Team Concert, I will show what more can be done for Work Item Customization which is applicable to any work item type including defects.

Let us know your thoughts/suggestions in the comments section below.