Asset reviews

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:
  1. First, the asset is checked to determine if it can be part of any master lifecycles in the repository.
  2. Then, the asset is checked to determine if it can be part of any community lifecycles.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.


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