Teamwork in Objecteering

Overview of teamwork in Objecteering

Welcome to the Objecteering Teamwork User Guide!

Objecteering Modeler works in the context of an Objecteering project. All the data from this project is located in the same physical location (an .ofp file) and only one user can work on it at a time.

However, when it comes to teamwork, it is necessary:

· for several people to work together at the same time

· to manage work spaces, such as development or integration spaces

· to exchange model information between different projects in a coordinated manner

A certain level of knowledge in group work is necessary, and you must be familiar with the Objecteering environment, detailed in the Objecteering Modeler User Guide.

Teamwork MDACs

To meet all your teamwork needs, Objecteering provides the following teamwork MDACs:

· The Objecteering Multi-user MDAC, which is only available in the Enterprise Edition of Objecteering, is used to simply support teamwork operations

· The Objecteering ClearCase MDAC, which is only available in the Enterprise Edition of Objecteering, is used to couple Objecteering with Rational ClearCase, and to carry out the most common ClearCase operations on the Objecteering model

· The Objecteering SCC MDAC, which is only available in the Enterprise Edition of Objecteering and exclusively for the Microsoft Windows environment, is used to couple Objecteering to different version control systems which use the Microsoft SCC API.

· The Objecteering Dimensions MDAC, which is only available in the Enterprise Edition of Objecteering, is used to couple Objecteering with Merant Dimensions, and to carry out the most common Dimensions operations on the Objecteering model.

· The Objecteering CM Synergy MDAC, available in the Enterprise Edition of Objecteering, is used to carry out the most common CM Synergy operations.

Please note that it is not possible (and would be pointless, in any case) to use several of these MDACs at once, as each MDAC provides the same commands. They are not complementary, but are rather functionally independent.

Work spaces in Objecteering

A site is where the work carried out in a company or in one of its departments is concentrated. A site can contain several projects.

Several "multi-user projects" can exist on a site. These are defined and managed by the Objecteering Multi-user, Objecteering ClearCase, Objecteering SCC, Objecteering CM Synergy or Objecteering Dimensions MDACs. These multi-user projects are themselves broken down into projects, which make up Objecteering Modeler development and user work spaces.

Within a multi-user project, communication between development spaces is managed by the Objecteering Multi-user MDAC.

On a site, the exchange of information (see Figure 1) between multi-user projects is carried out in two different ways:

· The import of elements between projects

· The exchange of externalized data through Objecteering Multi-user, Objecteering ClearCase, Objecteering SCC, Objecteering CM Synergy or Objecteering Dimensions.

Figure 1. Exchanges between work spaces in Objecteering

Model exchange facility

In addition to the standard teamwork services provided, there also exist model exchange functions:

· The import service between databases. This service allows you to use the Objecteering universal model identification mechanism to carry out exchanges between projects and databases. This service is only available in the Enterprise Edition of Objecteering.

· The XMI exchange service. The standard XMI format is used to exchange models between different UML modeling tools. Whilst not as powerful as the internal Objecteering formats (no identification mechanism, no exchange of diagrams, etc.), this service is available in the Personal Edition and the Professional Edition of Objecteering, subject to certain restrictions ("complete" project exchange only).

Creating "multi-user projects" using an Objecteering teamwork MDAC necessitates a certain level of discipline regarding the use of the MDAC in question. At the start of development, you can easily content himself with exchange services.