Rational Synergy provides
a complete configuration management environment in which development
teams can work easily, quickly, and securely.
Rational Synergy provides
the following features and benefits to software development organizations.
Ease of use
Most development teams run on
tight schedules with small windows for downtime. Because it is important
that development teams to establish a comfort level with a new tool
right away, Rational Synergy provides
the following standard features:
- Intuitive, easy-to-use graphical user interfaces (GUIs) and comprehensive
CLI
- Simple task-based approach to tracking changes
- Integrations with many tools and development environments
- Flexible process support, driven by templates
- No customization required to use the tool productively
- Ready-to-use defined privileges and object lifecycles, security,
and access rules
- Help from the GUI and the CLI
Fast start
Development teams can start using Rational Synergy soon
after it is installed, which is typically the same day. Rational Synergy has
these features:
- It is a fast and automated migration tool that allows you bring
existing projects in your file system under Rational Synergy control.
- Rational Synergy is
compatible with existing build and make procedures, so you can build
products using existing makefiles.
Rapid productivity for new users
WhenRational Synergy is up
and running, it is relatively easy for new users to come onboard.
If you are a new user, you can start using Rational Synergy right
away. After the CM administrator adds you as a Rational Synergy user,
you can copy a project to create your personal work area. Then, you
can perform the following actions:
- Select the task to work on.
- Copy the project and change files.
- Complete the task.
These steps represent the most fundamental use of the Rational Synergy tool.
There are a multitude of features to learn about so you can take full
advantage of Rational Synergy.
Consider attending a training session to gain a thorough understanding
of the product. However, you can immediately start to work in Rational Synergy to help
your team meet a critical deadline or commitment.
Flexible, automated workflow
Rational Synergy’s task-based
methodology provides a straightforward way to build and test your
software so you can find problems as quickly as possible and attain
the quality level you require. Using the task-based workflow you can
perform the following tasks:
- Easily review the reason for a change and identify all the files
modified to implement the change
- Develop changes in an insulated environment and see changes when
ready
- Carefully control the changes that are built into test areas and
software releases
- Detect configuration conflicts, such as parallel versions or missing
changes
- Preserve and reproduce the software that you ship
- Automate build-management operations
- Manage parallel development
- Easily set up different workflows for different teams
Secure team engineering environment
The
following features ensure that your development team can develop software
projects with a minimum of attention to the Rational Synergy tool:
- The data repository is a dependable, commercial, off-the-shelf
relational database management system (RDBMS).
- Rational Synergy uses
existing directory structures and tools.
- Rational Synergy provides
developers with private, insulated work areas that give them full
access to their own checked-out versions of files to prototype, edit,
build, and debug, before making their changes available to other developers.
- Rational Synergy provides
project reproducibility by accurately creating baseline configurations.
- Rational Synergy allows
you to trace files and projects through task association and check-in
and check-out capabilities.
- Developers can use tested and checked-in files on demand by updating
their projects with Rational Synergy’s update
process.
- Rational Synergy manages
concurrent development changes through automated parallel development
support and built-in security.
- Developers never need to stop development while integration or
release areas are being tested, because those areas are insulated
from ongoing changes.
- The default lifecycle ensures that only authorized changes are
released.
- Rational Synergy controls
data and file access operations with security that you can set for
each user of the database.
Worldwide control and transfer of information
Rational Synergy Distributed
Configuration Management (DCM) product allows you to share software
changes among any number of Rational Synergy databases,
anywhere in the world. With DCM, you can:
- Permit developers to work in the same user interface to which
they are accustomed (DCM information is shown in the appropriate dialog
boxes)
- Select the appropriate methodology to define the nature and direction
of data transfer between databases
- Send source objects, projects, folders, and tasks to any DCM database,
with no restrictions on how you group your objects
- Transfer an entire database or a subset of a database, either
automatically or manually
- Preview the transfer list before finalizing the transfer
- Continue parallel development in databases in different physical
locations, then resolve conflicts using the Compare and Merge features
Seamless integrations for Windows development
The Rational Synergy configuration
management tool is integrated with some of the industry leading development
environments. These integrations enable you to have source control
and configuration management from your native development environment.
The integrations include an easy-to-run installation and setup program.
Many integrations are available, including:
- Eclipse™
- IBM® Rational® Application Developer
- Microsoft® Visual Studio®
- Microsoft® Visual C++®
- Microsoft® Visual Basic®
- Sybase Powerbuilder®
For a complete list of available integrations,
see the IBM® Software Support
home page for Rational® products
at http://www.ibm.com/software/rational/support/.