Global Configuration Management
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Global Configuration Management

Implementation of Global Configuration Management in day-to-day project work

Successful engineering of complex products and systems requires efficient configuration management across variants and versions: Global Configuration Management. All the technical requirements for using Global Configuration Management are already available, including tried-and-tested best practices.

Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC) and Global Configuration Management based on OSLC are fundamental prerequisites for the digital thread in engineering projects.

Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration (OSLC)

Motivation for the OSLC standard

The OSLC standard (Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration) is an open standard for integrating engineering tools via a web interface. It was developed to facilitate collaboration between different engineering tools, with a focus on systems and software engineering as well as lifecycle management.

OSLC breaks down the typical tool silos; artifacts in dedicated domain-specific tools can be referenced via OSLC links and visualized in their original version.

What is OSLC?

OSLC is a standardized, REST-based API for the integration of different tools. In particular, the aim is to improve integration between tools that are used in different engineering disciplines. OSLC enables direct linking and direct access to artifacts in all compatible tools, without conversion, copying, synchronization or other manual interventions. OSLC focuses on tools for the following disciplines:

  • Requirements Management
  • Change & Configuration Management
  • Quality Management
  • Systems and Software Engineering
  • Product Lifecycle Management (PLM)
  • DevOps and ALM Processes (Application Lifecycle Management)

OSLC connects heterogeneous environments without adding complex manufacturer-specific integrations.

Benefits of OSLC
Standardized, manufacturer-independent interfaces
  • Proprietary interfaces between domain-specific tools are no longer required.
  • There are no compatibility issues resulting from proprietary interfaces when importing new versions of the tools used.
  • Users can choose between OSLC-compatible tools from different manufacturers.
Continuous traceability and consistency
  • OSLC-based linking connects original artifacts that are managed and hosted in dedicated domain-specific tools. 
  • This means that all artifacts, e.g. requirements, changes, design modules, test results, etc., can be mapped in a continuous impact chain, and complete traceability across all engineering disciplines is guaranteed.
  • Thanks to Global Configurations, it is also ensured that a link always refers to the correct variants and versions of the addressed artifacts.
Better collaboration and version control
  • In distributed teams and in large, global projects, efficient collaboration can be made even more difficult by geographic or process-related obstacles. 
  • OSLC ensures that original data in different tools is accessible to everyone in the team in real time and is up-to-date at all times.
Support for various engineering domains and application areas
  • OSLC covers many engineering disciplines, including:
    • Software Engineering
    • Systems Engineering
    • Embedded Software & Systems
    • Automotive and Aerospace
    • DevOps & IT Service Management (ITSM)
OSLC is an open standard
  • Originally, OSLC was developed by IBM as part of the Jazz architecture and then continued as an open standard.
    ➚ https://open-services.net/.
  • Today, OSLC is managed by the Open Group and the OSLC Open Project Community (under the OASIS organization).
    ➚ https://www.oasis-open.org/open-projects/.
  • This is where the specifications are published, the community is organized and new developments in the OSLC standard are discussed.
OSLC in practice - an example
  • Let's assume a company uses
    • Siemens Polarion for requirements management
    • IBM Rhapsody for systems engineering
    • PTC Windchill for product lifecycle management (PLM)
    • IBM Engineering Test Management (ETM)
    • Atlassian Jira for change and bug tracking
  • Without OSLC, individual, manufacturer-specific plugins or middleware solutions would have to be built to connect the systems.
  • Instead, with OSLC you can:
    • Create links between artifacts from different tools (e.g. link a requirement in Polarion with an issue in Jira)
    • Establish real-time traceability between requirements, code and tests
    • Use REST-based APIs to retrieve or synchronize information between the systems

Global Configuration Management (GCM)

What is GCM?

GCM (Global Configuration Management) is realized through the interaction of various components of the OSLC standard and enables consistent management of configurations, variants and versions across all engineering disciplines and different tools. Important functions are

  • Linking artifacts hosted in different lifecycle tools, taking into account the correct version and variant of the artifacts.
  • Time-shifted committing of artifacts of an engineering discipline in relation to a defined maturity level (rolling baselines).
  • Summarizing baselines across engineering disciplines and tools.
  • Capturing and managing change sets across engineering disciplines and tools.
Advantages of GCM
  • Robust and complete traceability through clear referencing of linked artifacts for up-to-date and correct resolution of a link at all times. 
  • Management von Varianten und Versionen in komplexen Entwicklungsprozessen über Engineering Disziplinen und Werkzeuge hinweg.
  • Global consistency and transparency across all configuration statuses of a product. 
  • Consistent cross-variant change management, even in complex development projects.

Global Configuration Management Tools

IBM Engineering Lifecycle Management (ELM) Suite
  • IBM Engineering Workflow Management (ETM)
  • IBM Engineering Requirements Management DOORS Next
  • IBM Engineering Workflow Management (EWM)
  • IBM Engineering Systems Design Rhapsody
PTC
  • Windchill (based on the adapter OSLC Connect for Windchill)
Atlassian
  • Atlassian Jira (based on the adapter OSLC Connect for Jira)
  • Atlassian Confluence (Basierend auf dem Adapter OSLC Connect für Confluence)

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