Introduction to IBM Rational Tara

IBM Rational Tara is a project and program management (PPM) solution that is optimized for the Software and Systems Delivery (SSD) platform. This solution supports visibility and alignment across the entire project life cycle, which is scalable from small local teams to large distributed work groups.

You will find that Tara is an effective and scalable solution to complete your software delivery projects and programs on time, within budget, and with high quality. As a scalable solution, it supports Functionally Distributed Architecture and applies Development Intelligence (DI) to mine decision support information from the software repositories. DI helps leverage information that is available in various applications across the software lifecycle to make appropriate inferences and decisions using dashboards.

With Tara you can plan and execute projects in dynamically changing conditions to optimize the value and minimize the cost of software development and delivery. Tara captures objective measures of value, scope, costs, resources and risks for a project. You can also connect and integrate with different sources that will enable you to view past performance, current status, and predicted estimate at completion (EAC). Tara provides the ability to perform the following tasks:

Tara leverages the Agile project planner capabilities from Rational Team Concert along with traditional project management capabilities in the following areas:

Tara addresses the majority of the following knowledge area processes of the Project Management Institute's (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK):

Some of the knowledge areas are optimized with the support of other Rational products, which are described in the following sections.

Integration across the Software and Systems Delivery platform

Tara leverages the Jazz-based project management capability and expands the collaborative application lifecycle management. Tara integrates with other Rational tools in the SSD environment, such as Rational ClearQuest and Rational Team Concert, and provides a comprehensive view of real information in the ecosystem.

Program managers can use Tara as a tool to assess and allocate resources to projects. For example, when a project is nearing completion and another project is ready for execution, the program manager compares resource needs and allocates them to a new project. The program manager and the newly appointed project manager continue detailed project planning and monitor program health. Using Rational Insight, the program manager can share reports on various execution metrics with the project manager, and readily address the issue.

Project managers can use Tara to establish project goals and metrics. During project execution, the project manager can associate the new project with the other projects in Rational Team Concert, and existing work items in Rational Team Concert are unified with the Work Breakdown Structure (WBS).

Team members can use Tara to review the list of assignments during project execution, view the list of high priority plan items by iteration, and their task dependencies. The project plan is updated when the team member completes the assigned work items. Progress report based on the completed assigned work items is rolled up to the WBS structure.

Importing and exporting projects

Import and export functions help you use data from other project management systems such as Microsoft Project. For importing and exporting projects, Tara supports the XML file format from Microsoft Project, version 2007.

Using Tara, you can import WBS along with constraints from Microsoft Project XML file, similarly, you can export WBS elements to Microsoft Project XML file. You can also import and export projects project dependencies, assignments, and calendars. During the planning phase, the project manager can leverage pre-defined project templates from the Project Management Office (PMO) to create new projects in Tara.

Portfolio and proposal management integration

From the demand management perspective, Rational Focal Point provides support for project portfolio analysis and alignment of initiatives/projects with business objectives and goals. Approved and prioritized projects are then managed in Tara. The status of the project flows from Tara to Focal Point for continuous portfolio reviews and validation.

Rational Focal Point helps to decide the required staffing levels to meet the business needs in capacity planning. The program manager can use Focal Point to approve the proposed changes and prioritize the projects. Later, the project managers can use Focal Point to scope out the proposals for the project.


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