Integrated process guidance

You can obtain process guidance with a set of integrated features and content within the Rational Software Development Platform.

The Rational Unified Process (RUP) methodology is a software engineering process that details a disciplined approach to assigning and managing tasks and responsibilities in a development organization. The goal of this process is to produce, within a predictable schedule and budget, high-quality software that meets the needs of its users.

The Rational Unified Process methodology captures many of the best practices in modern software development and presents them in a tailorable form that is suitable for a wide range of projects and organizations. You access and configure process information directly in the Software Development Platform, using the following features:

 

The Process Advisor view

The Process Advisor view provides contextual process guidance on model elements within diagrams. When you select elements in a UML diagram, the system conducts a dynamic search of RUP content based on the context of your selection and the settings on the Process page of the Preferences window. The results of the search are displayed as topic links in the Process Advisor. Clicking a link opens the topic content in the Process Browser window.

You can also initiate a search from the Process Advisor by clicking the Process Search button.

 

The Process Browser window

The Process Browser window displays the full set of Rational Unified Process content from the installed RUP Configuration and provides navigation to topics with the use of three tabs: Process Views, Search Results, and Index.

A process view is the hierarchical set of process elements represented in and displayed by the RUP content tree in the view pane, and associated with a particular role or major category. Each process view is represented by a tabbed pane, as shown in the following figure.

You can manage the views of these process elements by using the toolbar buttons at the top of the window.

You can perform the following tasks in the Process Browser:

 

RUP content and configuration

Rational Unified Process Configurations customize the various elements of the RUP methodology, including templates, guidelines, and examples. As installed, the RUP Configuration provides basic process guidance to help you get started. This configuration is a subset of the full process information available in the standard configuration of the RUP methodology.

You can establish the RUP Configuration you want to use when accessing process guidance. The Process page of the Preferences window enables you to set the location of your preferred RUP installation.

You can also configure your RUP preferences to filter the information that is searched and displayed. You can configure the settings based on role, artifact type, and process element.

 

Parent topic

Accessing Rational Unified Process guidance

 

Related tasks

Configuring process guidance content
Viewing process guidance on elements in models
Viewing process guidance for roles
Customizing process guidance
Printing process topics