Tool Mentor:
Defining a Custom Process Using Rational Process Workbench
Purpose
This tool mentor describes how to define your custom process using the Rational
Unified Process (RUP) process model and the Process Content Library as the starting
point for your customized RUP.
This tool mentor relates to the following RUP information:
Overview
You can customize the process model, component model, and Process Content Library included with the RUP to your specific needs using
the Rational Process Workbench (RPW). This work
entails defining new process elements, either right from the very beginning or derived from existing RUP elements, authoring their associated process text, and specifying the closure of your process.
Tool Steps
To define a custom process, proceed as follows:
-
Create your own
process model
-
Author your process text
-
Organize your
Process Content Library
-
Create your own
process components
-
Define your own
process closure
-
Define
how the published tree browser will be organized
-
Upgrade to a new version of
the RUP
Essentially, a process model is a stereotyped package that resides at the
top-level in the Rational Rose workspace's Logical View. Process models
serve as containers of process definitions and you can have multiple process model
packages simultaneously loaded in the same Rose workspace. This allows
you to view and share information between the various process models. Your process
customizations are developed in your own process models, where they are separate
from the RUP definitions, which are kept in another process model. This separation facilitates future updates to the
RUP. You work inside
the process model, where you use the notation of RPW to
define new process elements that support your specific process needs.
See the chapter titled " Modeling elements and principles" in the Developing Process Using Rational Process Workbench manual. In
addition to creating new elements, using the object-oriented extension mechanism
of inheritance you can derive new process elements from existing ones in the
RUP, and you can create variations points using interfaces.
Refer
to the topic titled Creating your own process model in RPW online Help for detailed
information.
Each process element in your process model is accompanied by one or more
HTML files that constitute the element's process text. Process text is
maintained in the file system as regular HTML pages and you can use your
preferred HTML editor to author the text. RPW enables
you to create new process text files using templates, which populate your new
files with their initial structure. This includes inserting the required RPW constructs in the HTML material, which are the
foundation for generating the process, as well as creating the initial
outline for your new file. RPW is only involved in the initial creation of the process text, therefore, you may
prefer to invoke your HTML editor from outside of the RPW environment. Use
the Process Content Files dialog to create files for the different element types. The dialog is
tailored to recognize the various file types defined for each process element
type.
See Chapter 3, " Process Content Libraries" in the Developing Process Using Rational Process Workbench manual
for a complete description of the types of files that can be defined for the
different types of process elements.
Refer
to the topic titled Authoring your own Process Text in the Rational
Process Workbench online Help for detailed
information.
Your Process Content Library (PCL) stores the many files that
provide the process text, graphics, icons, and so on, for your process Web site. To facilitate
the incorporation of future updates of the RUP, you
must maintain your own process text in its own PCL,
separate from the RUP material.
Although RPW does not impose any particular
organization of your PCL, it does require that some information exists there
to operate correctly.
Refer
to the topic titled Organizing your own Process Content Library in the Rational
Process Workbench online Help for detailed
information.
When you've defined your customized process elements and created their
accompanying process content files, it's time to create the process components
that specify how these elements will be grouped together for publishing.
See Tool Mentor: Publishing a Process for more
details.
The component view in Rose is used to define both process components
and process closures. RPW uses regular components
stereotyped to process components, and uses their realization properties to
specify those process elements to include.
Refer
to the topic titled Creating your own process components in the Rational
Process Workbench online Help for detailed
information.
A process is represented by a stereotyped component in Rose's component
view, which is associated with the process components included in
the process. A component model can contain several processes at the same
time, including different, overlapping subsets of the collection of defined
process components.
A process closure is determined by the process elements associated to
those process components included in the process. It's a transitive closure,
meaning that all process elements associated to already included process
elements are also included. For a process closure to be considered
complete and correct, all associated elements need to exist inside of its
closure. This is a prerequisite for publishing a process. See Tool
Mentor: Publishing a Process for more details. Refer
to the topic titled Defining your own process closure in RPW online Help for detailed
information.
You can control how the published tree browser is organized in the four
predefined compartments into which published information is insertednamely
the Disciplines, Roles, Artifacts, and Tools sectionsby
using a <<tree node>> package
stereotype to structure the process elements in your
process model. This stereotyped package type may exist in arbitrary structures,
which contain process elements, in your process model. When
published, the structure of Tree Node packages is preserved for each process
element and is superimposed on the existing structure in its designated
compartment in the tree browser.
Additionally, you can override a published tree browser organization, which
defaults to be ordered alphabetically, with your own preferred order. Such
rearrangements are preserved over subsequent generations into the same location.
Those portions outside of the four predefined compartments of the tree
browser are configured by editing a text file, instead of from the modeling
space. See Tool
Mentor: Publishing a Process for more details. Refer
to the topic titled Defining how the published tree browser will be organized
in RPW online Help for detailed
information.
New versions of the RUP are released at regular
intervals. If you've followed our recommendations to keep your customized process models and
content library separate from the base RUP material, merging a new version of the RUP with
your customized material is straightforward.
To upgrade to a new RUP version, you need to bring
the new process model into your Rose workspace, synchronize it with
your customized process elements, connect the new RUP process model with its accompanying
content library, and capture and reestablish your component realization from
the RUP process model. A combination of Rose
and RPW functions support you in determining if a
received process model is compatible with its predecessor and, if not, where
the differences exist, and reestablish your realization dependencies.
Refer
to the topic titled Upgrading to a new version of the RUP in RPW online Help for detailed
information.
For More Information
For more information on basic modeling principles,
see Chapter 2, Modeling Elements and Principles in
the Developing Process Using Rational Process Workbench manual.
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© 1987 - 2001 Rational Software Corporation
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