2.10 Overview of the UCM-ClearQuest Integration

This section describes the following UCM-ClearQuest integration concepts:

Associating UCM and ClearQuest Objects

Setting up the integration links UCM and ClearQuest objects. Figure 8 shows the bidirectional linking of these objects.

Figure 8 Association of UCM and ClearQuest Objects in Integration

When you enable a project to link to a ClearQuest user database, the integration stores a reference to that database in the project's PVOB.

Every project enabled for ClearQuest is linked to a project record of record type UCM_Project in the ClearQuest user database.

Every activity in a project enabled for ClearQuest is linked to a record in the database. An activity's headline is linked to the headline field in its corresponding ClearQuest record. If you change an activity's headline in ClearCase, the integration changes the headline in ClearQuest to match the new headline, and the reverse is also true. Similarly, an activity's ID is linked to the ID field in its ClearQuest record.

It is possible for a ClearQuest user database to contain some records that are linked to activities and some records that are not linked. Record 2 in Figure 8 is not linked to an activity. You may encounter this situation if you have a ClearQuest user database in place before you adopt UCM. As you create activities, the integration creates corresponding ClearQuest records. However, any records that existed in that user database before you enabled it to work with UCM remain unlinked. In addition, UCM does not link a record to an activity until a developer sets work to that record.

UCM-Enabled Schema

In ClearQuest, a schema is the definition of a database. To use the integration, you must create or upgrade a ClearQuest user database that is based on a UCM-enabled schema. A UCM-enabled schema contains certain fields, scripts, actions, and state types. ClearQuest includes two predefined UCM-enabled schemas, which you can use. You can also enable a custom schema or another predefined schema to work with UCM. For details on UCM-enabled schemas, see Deciding Which Schema to Use.

State Types

ClearQuest uses states to track the progress of change requests from submission to completion. A state represents a particular stage in this progression. Each movement from one state to another is a state transition. The integration uses a particular state transition model. To implement this model, the integration uses state types. A state type is a category of states that UCM uses to define state transition sequences. You can define as many states as you want, but all states in a UCM-enabled record type must be based on one of the following state types:

Multiple states can belong to the same state type. However, you must define at least one path of transitions between states of state types as follows: Waiting to Ready to Active to Complete. For details on state types, see Setting State Types.

Queries in a UCM-Enabled ClearQuest Schema

A UCM-enabled schema includes six queries. When you create or upgrade a ClearQuest user database to use a UCM-enabled schema, the integration installs these queries in two subfolders of the Public Queries folder in the user database's workspace. These queries make it easy for developers to see which activities are assigned to them and for project managers to see which activities are active in a particular project. For details on these queries, see Querying ClearQuest User Databases