Activities In Rational ClearCase

Question

Hello All,

We are thinking of implementing Rational ClearQuest for Change Management and Defect tracking. When we integrate Rational ClearQuest and Rational ClearCase, the activities will be coming from the Rational ClearQuest.

Now since the implementation of Rational ClearQuest will take time due to the process, we are thinking of removing the activity creation from the developer side. We are thinking of making the admin create the activities for each developer.

Now I have a few concerns, If the admin creates the activities and changes the owner for the activity and the group using the protect command, Is it enough? Would this activity used by other developer too? Since activity is a work can this be shared?

I need some clarity on this.

Thanks.

Answer 1

I don't remember having had to protect somehow UCM activity creation with special priviledge when using ClearQuest (we are no longer using it right now)

The IBM article "About creating UCM activities in a project enabled for Rational ClearQuest" summarizes the activity creation process: a user "work on a (ClearQuest) activity"

• An activity object is created in the stream to which the view is attached.
• The activity object is linked to the record in the Rational ClearQuest user database whose record type is enabled for UCM.
• The name of the Rational ClearCase activity is set to match the Rational ClearQuest record's ID.

You do not create UCM activity objects directly.

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Since the creation of ClearCase UCM activities is managed by ClearQuest, you don't need to:

• create yourself some UCM activities
• try protect those by a specal owner.

You should rather use some policies like the WorkOn policy:

This policy is invoked when a developer attempts to set an activity.
The default policy script checks whether the developer’s user name matches the name in the Rational® ClearQuest® record Owner field.
If the names match, the developer can work on the activity. If the names do not match, the WorkOn fails.

The intent of this policy is to ensure that all criteria are met before a developer can start working on an activity. You may want to modify the policy to check for additional criteria.

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The article "About Rational ClearCase activities and record types enabled for UCM" details the link between the two notions (UCM activities and ClearQuest record type)

In a project that uses the UCM integration with Rational ClearQuest, records based on a record type enabled for UCM can be linked with Rational ClearCase activity objects

This link enables the Rational ClearQuest client to display information about the Rational ClearCase activity (such as its change set, its stream, and whether it is currently set in any view).
The link also enables policies governing when you can deliver an activity in the Rational ClearCase environment and when you can close an activity in the Rational ClearQuest environment.
Because of the close association between linked UCM-enabled records and Rational ClearCase activities, the UCM documentation usually refers to both entities as activities.

At any point in a project, your Rational ClearQuest user database may contain records that are not linked to a Rational ClearCase activity object, but have a record type that is enabled for UCM.
For example, a newly created record might not be linked to a Rational ClearCase activity. You must explicitly complete an action (for example, by clicking Action > Work On) to link such a record to a UCM activity.

However, each Rational ClearCase activity object in a project enabled for Rational ClearQuest must be linked to a Rational ClearQuest record.
You cannot create a Rational ClearCase activity object without linking it to a record in a Rational ClearQuest user database.

Tip: In a project enabled for Rational ClearQuest, a field is included to describe the activity owner. The Rational ClearQuest owner field and the Rational ClearCase activity creator are two different data points; the former is stored in a Rational ClearQuest user database and the latter in a Rational ClearCase PVOB.

Answer 2

Hi Kadaba, good step.

I can't figure out if you mean that administrators have to create activities during the implementation phase only or on a permanent basis. Anyway I'd suggest you to let the team leaders create the activities through the ClearQuest instead of the administrators, due to following reasons:

• ClearQuest is part of the project planning, where team leaders should take part of.
• Team leaders know relevant activities information, rather than administrators.
• Team leaders and developers should have the same group

BTW: To be more precise, not the activities are made by ClearQuest but the records that equivalent to ClearCase activities. The activities themself are created when the developers mark them in ClearCase explorer (or executing equivalent cleartool command).

Regards,

Tamir Gefen, GoMidjets

Rational ClearCase Plugins