You can use custom review processes to ensure that assets
are complete and optimized for reuse.
In IBM® Rational® Asset Manager Version
7.2, you cannot create new review processes that use the default workflow.
Use asset lifecycles to govern assets and manage
the review process of assets. However, Rational Asset Manager still
supports existing review processes from prior versions. The following
information applies to those review processes.
An administrator specifies the users or user groups that can review
assets or complete actions that are part of an asset review. Administrators
also define policies to manage which users are authorized to change
assets.
Setting up a review process
Community administrators
can assign specific reviewers, user groups, and review board members
to review or complete other actions in the workflow of an asset. During
a review, people can participate in discussion forums and post topics
about an asset.
A default review process has two states: plan
review and review. In the plan review state, the asset is submitted
to the repository. In
My Dashboard, review
board members receive a task that indicates that the asset is in the
plan review state. Review board members can add reviewers and user
groups. Only the administrators and review board members can access
the asset. In the review state, the review is in progress. All reviewers,
review board members, and administrators can access the asset in the
review state.
Policy-driven review process
In addition
to the default review process, you can use policies. A
policy is
a predefined set of rules that you can apply to assets and artifacts.
The following scenarios are examples of policy-driven review processes:
- Checking an asset to make sure that it does not have URL artifacts
that are broken or invalid
- Checking an asset to make sure that it meets naming conventions
- Checking an asset for Service policies. For example, you might
check an asset for a policy that finds validation errors that tools
produce if an xsd:choice is detected in a WSDL Schema.
- Checking to make sure that an asset was reviewed within the last
week before it can be published to IBM WebSphere® Service Registry
and Repository or to IBM Tivoli® Change and Configuration
Management Database
Companies can either provide custom policies or use independent
software vendors, such as WebLayers, from which you can purchase
policies. When an asset is reviewed and the policy fails, the asset
returns to the draft state.
When an asset
can enter either a lifecycle or a review process
An asset
can be governed only by a single lifecycle or review process. When
you submit an asset to a community, the asset enters a lifecycle or
workflow in this order:
- First, the asset is checked to determine if it can be part of
any master lifecycles in the repository.
- Then, the asset is checked to determine if it can be part of any
community lifecycles.
- If no lifecycles apply to the asset, it is checked to determine
if it can be part of any review processes that are created in the
repository or community.
- If no review processes apply, the asset enters a simple, implicit
lifecycle process.
Asset states
During a review, a reviewer's
actions can cause an asset to transition from one state to another.
The following states can be part of a review process or asset lifecycle
workflow:
- Draft
- The asset owner and the administrators can view the asset. The
asset owner can change the asset.
- Plan review
- Administrators and review board members can view the asset and
specify reviewers.
- Review
- The asset is being reviewed. Reviewers can participate in discussion
forums about the asset.
- Approved
- The asset passes the review. The review board has the highest
level of authority to approve an asset; reviewers have the second-highest
authority.
- As-is
- The asset bypasses the review process. Community administrators
can require that administrators approve as-is assets.
- Retired
- Either asset owners or administrators can access retired assets
in the repository.
- Deleted
- The asset is not available in the repository.
- Archived
- The administrator can access archived assets in the repository.
After an asset is archived, it can be made available if the repository
or community administrator resets the status of the asset to Draft.
- Expired
- When the timer expires on an asset, the asset moves to the editable
draft state. Asset owners and repository administrators can resubmit
assets after the assets expire.
User
types
If you have one of the following roles, you can be
part of an asset review process:
- Community administrator
- The community administrator creates and configures the review
processes.
- Review board
- Members of the review board add users and roles to the review
process. After the review board approves an asset, the asset changes
from the Review state to the Approved state. The review board members
can see the asset in all of the states except the Draft state.
- Reviewer
- Reviewers are the users or user groups that an administrator or
review board member assigns to review an asset. They are interested
in the lifecycle of an asset type; they verify the accuracy of an
asset in their area of expertise. For example, if the development
of an implementation asset changes, the developer role is assigned
to the review to ensure that the modifications are technically accurate.
The reviewers can view assets during either a review state or the
states that they can view in IBM Rational ClearQuest®.
- Asset owners
- Asset owners submit assets for review. They can submit an asset
for review or as-is, which bypasses the review. Only asset owners
can see the asset when it is in Draft state.
Rational ClearQuest-driven
review process
You can use Rational ClearQuest to
customize the state flow of a review process and to create states
that are not found in the default review process. As the Rational ClearQuest review
asset moves from state to state, changes to the asset are reflected
in Rational Asset Manager.
Administrators or review board members can further customize the review
by granting users and user groups access to download an asset when
it is in a specific state. During the review, reviewers can write
comments and accept or reject the asset.