Appendix B. IBM Rational Method Composer (RMC)

The IBM Rational Method Composer (RMC) is a commercial product built on top of EPF (see Appendix A). It is the next major evolution of the product previously called RUP and, among other things, integrates the methods from RUP^[1] and IBM Rational SUMMIT Ascendant.^[2]

^[1] RUP came to IBM through the acquisition of Rational Software.

^[2] IBM SUMMIT Ascendant came to IBM through the acquisition of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.

RMC provides a comprehensive process solution for the enterprise.

The objective of RMC is to provide a comprehensive process solution for the enterprise. RMC consists of three major components:

1. The RUP process framework for guiding people in the development of a variety of software-intensive systems, including legacy evolution, commercial-off-the-shelf (COTS) development, service-oriented architecture, systems engineering, and maintenance.

2. Enterprise process guidance derived from IBM Rational SUMMIT Ascendant, RUP, and newly created content.

3. Eclipse-based tooling for authoring, configuring, viewing, and publishing processes, including integration with IBM Rational Portfolio Manager to provide an execution environment of an enterprise process framework.

For organizations focused on software, systems, or enterprise IT capability, RMC provides processes for defining existing or improved business processes and describes the organization and IT requirements for implementing desired improvements. It can guide projects ranging from small collocated development to distributed or large-scale development, from packaged application and legacy evolution to maintenance and custom application development projects. It provides a framework for executing projects within the context of a project, program, or a portfolio, and it links IT investments to high-priority business improvements while leveraging various development and deployment environments, such as service-oriented architectures.

RMC also provides tools that allow you to capture your own best practices, assemble what is suitable for a project or set of projects, and communicate those best practices to the project team. RMC integrates the process with tools for analysis, development, and testing as well as for management of projects and portfolios.

Let's look at the content RMC provides for projects of different types, as well as its cross-project and enterprise-level guidance. We will also look at how RMC can deliver value to practitioners and team members, project managers, and process managers or process engineers.