Project purpose

A project purpose is a setting that specifies the use of a project and ties it to a set of rules for an update process.

Rational Synergy provides the following predefined project purposes:

Table 1. Predefined project purposes
Purpose State
Insulated Development working
Collaborative Development working
Custom working
Integration Testing prep
System Testing prep
Shared shared
Visible visible

The Insulated Development, Integration Testing, and System Testing purposes are used for the default methodology as described in Release. The Shared, Visible, and Collaborative Development purposes are for teams that use variations of the standard methodology so that the teams can work together more closely. Developers use the Custom purpose to specify the baseline and tasks for their custom projects.

Developers mostly use the Insulated Development, Collaborative Development, and Custom purposes. The Insulated Development purpose is the default purpose used when developers create a project. When a developer updates a project, he or she gets all of his or her own assigned and completed tasks for the current release. The developer also gets the latest Integration Testing baseline for the current release.

The Collaborative Development purpose is available as an alternative to Insulated Development. Typically, smaller teams use this purpose when the chance of changes by other developers breaking the build is less likely. When a developer uses the Collaborative Development purpose and updates a project, the developer gets all of his or her own assigned and completed tasks for the current release. The developer also gets all completed tasks from other developers for the current release, in addition to the latest Integration Testing baseline for the current release.

Build managers use the Integration Testing and System Testing purposes. Teams requiring an alternative to the default, task-based methodology use the Shared and Visible purposes.

When you create or copy a project, you specify its purpose. Rational Synergy automatically sets up your new project for that purpose by setting the project update properties.

Additionally, the State column shows the state in which the project is created by default for the purpose. For example, a project is created in the visible state only if its purpose is Visible. A project is created in the working state if any of the following purposes are chosen: Insulated Development, Collaborative Development, or Custom. The state also ensures that the project selects the correct members when you update.


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