Glossary

This glossary provides terms and definitions for the Rational Engineering Lifecycle Manager software and products.

The following cross-references are used in this glossary:
  • See refers you from a nonpreferred term to the preferred term or from an abbreviation to the spelled-out form.
  • See also refers you to a related or contrasting term.

For other terms and definitions, see the IBM Terminology website (opens in new window).

A

artifact
An entity that is used or produced by a software development process. Examples of artifacts are models, source files, scripts, and binary executable files. See also baseline, component, configuration provider, configuration specification, revision, stream, version.
audit
An examination of the changes that have been made to a product over time.

B

baseline
An uneditable or frozen configuration of one or more components that corresponds to some meaningful state of its artifacts. Baselines are useful for enabling a team to work with a known configuration, or as an initial state for some new stream of work. See also component, configuration, stream.
branch
To create a stream for parallel or insulated development.

C

component
A unit of organization consisting of a reusable set of engineering artifacts. See also stream.
concurrent-use license
A license that limits the number of users that can be connected to a resource concurrently.
config spec
See configuration specification.
configuration
A unique set of versions of artifacts. Configurations commonly identify one version of each artifact in the set. The artifacts can be unchanging (from a baseline) or open to change (in development). In some systems, configurations can be hierarchical, so that they contain other configurations. See also baseline, configuration provider, configuration specification, global configuration provider, version.
configuration provider
An application that manages sets of versions of artifacts, for example, change management or test management artifacts. See also configuration.
configuration specification (config spec)
A set of rules that specify versions of artifacts. A configuration specification commonly identifies at most one version of a given versioned artifact. See also configuration, version.
content assist
A feature of some source editors that prompts the user with a list of valid alternatives for completing the current line of code or input field.
controlling area
A team area that controls access to a configuration of artifacts.

D

dashboard
A web user interface component that provides information about the project status at a glance. Users can view project summary information or more detailed information.
dimension
A name and a value that together define a feature of a variant of a product.

E

enumeration
An ordered set of names and values.

F

floating license
See concurrent-use license.
friend
An entity that has an established connection to another entity for communication. For example, a server can be a friend to another server.

G

global configuration provider
A configuration provider that coordinates contributions from multiple configuration providers. See also configuration.

I

impact analysis
The identification of how a change to one item affects other, related items.
index
A set of URIs that point to resources in one or more lifecycle tools so that the set of URIs can be queried together. Access depends on the identity of the authenticated user.

L

lifecycle
One complete pass through the four phases of software development: inception, elaboration, construction, and transition.
Lifecycle Query Engine
A component that indexes and searches for assets that are stored in any tool that can support the Tracked Resource Set (TRS) specification.
link
In a linked data system, a relationship between two artifacts as expressed by a unique URI.
linked data
A method of publishing structured data, so that it can be linked to and from other data sets.
load rule
A statement in the config spec that specifies an element or subtree to load into a baseline view. Config specs can have more than one load rule.

M

merge
To combine one stream or baseline into another stream.

O

OAuth
An HTTP-based authorization protocol that gives third-party applications scoped access to a protected resource on behalf of the resource owner, by creating an approval interaction between the resource owner, client, and resource server.
Open Services
See Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration.
Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (Open Services, OSLC)
A community effort to facilitate the collaboration and standardization across the software delivery lifecycle by building practical specifications for integrating software.
OSLC
See Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration.

P

package
A product or component that is specifically designed for installation by IBM Installation Manager.
product
Something produced that is marketed or sold. A product is formed from a particular configuration of component parts, which can be software applications, physical parts, or services. A complex product might contain multiple systems. A system might be made up of multiple products. See also product line, system, variant.
product family
See product line.
product line
A group of closely related products that are variants of each other. Products that make up a product line are often produced from a common base or architecture. See also product, system, variant, variation point.
project area
An area in the repository where information about one or more software projects is stored.
property
A characteristic of an object that describes the object. A property can be changed. Properties can describe an object name, type, value, or behavior, among other things.

Q

query
A way of retrieving information from the lifecycle index of artifacts, such as products, work items, requirements, design models, and test cases. The resulting list of artifacts can be used to populate a view, run a report, perform an analysis, and more.

R

redact
To remove changes to a product's name, properties, and artifact links that a user did not mean to share. Redacting does not remove the changes from the history of the object.
repository
A persistent storage area for data and other application resources.
requirement
A condition or capability that a system must provide. This condition is either derived direction from user needs or stated in a contract, standard, specification, or other document.
resource
  1. A specific XML entity in an XML data source. A resource can be associated with an XML schema and can be used to map a data source to a relational database table to create reports.
  2. See artifact.
revision
A version of an artifact that is designed to replace an earlier version, such as a model year of a car or a revised requirement. See also version.

S

snapshot
See baseline.
SPARQL
A query language for RDF that is used to express queries across diverse data sources. The W3 specification defines the syntax and semantics of the SPARQL query language.
stream
  1. A modifiable configuration of artifacts. For example, team members deliver to the stream when they want to make their changes visible to other team members. See also baseline, component.
  2. A repository object that includes one or more components. Streams are typically used to integrate the work that is stored in repository workspaces. Team members deliver their changes to the stream and accept changes from other team members into their repository workspaces from the stream.
system
A set of individual components, such as people, machines, or methods, that work together to perform a function. See also product, product line.

T

TC
See test case.
team area
A place within a project area for managing team membership, roles, assignments, and team artifacts.
test case
  1. A set of input values, execution preconditions, expected results and execution postconditions, developed for a particular objective or test condition, such as to exercise a particular program path or to verify compliance with a specific requirement. (ISTQB)
  2. A set of tasks, scripts, or routines that automate the task of testing software.
topology
The physical or logical mapping of the location of networking components or nodes within a network.
tracked resource set (TRS)
The set of resources in a finite collection of artifacts, expressed as a set of members (a base) and a change log.
traverse
To systematically crawl through a tree structure, examining each node once.
TRS
See tracked resource set.

V

variant
A version of an artifact or a product that is identified by a specific set of characteristics that distinguish it from other artifacts or products in the product line, where each variant can exist at the same time as other versions of the artifact or product. See also product, product line, variation point.
variation point
An aspect of a design with multiple potential values that, when chosen, defines one of the characteristics that distinguish one product from another within a product line. See also product line, variant.
version
The referenceable state of an artifact. In a linked data system, each version can be referenced with a unique URI. See also configuration, configuration specification, revision.
V process model
A visual representation of the systems development lifecycle as a modified waterfall methodology, with the phases arrayed across a V shape to correlate development with testing.

W

work item
An artifact representing a generalized notion of a development task, such as a task, defect report, or enhancement request.

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