IBM Rational Asset Manager (RAM) is a collaborative software development

Software development

Software development is the development of a software product...

 asset management

IT asset management

IT asset management is the set of business practices that join financial, contractual and inventory functions to support life cycle management and strategic decision making for the IT environment...

 solution that supports the Reusable Asset Specification

Reusable Asset Specification

Reusable Asset Specification is an Object Management Group standard to package digital artifacts.The specification is a set of guidelines and recommendations about the structure, content, and descriptionsof reusable software assets....

 (RAS) and enables organizations to identify, manage and govern the design, development and consumption of software assets, including services as part of a service-oriented architecture

Service-oriented architecture

In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...

(SOA) initiative.

Overview

Rational Asset Manager is a development asset management

IT asset management

IT asset management is the set of business practices that join financial, contractual and inventory functions to support life cycle management and strategic decision making for the IT environment...

 repository that uses the Reusable Asset Specification

Reusable Asset Specification

Reusable Asset Specification is an Object Management Group standard to package digital artifacts.The specification is a set of guidelines and recommendations about the structure, content, and descriptionsof reusable software assets....

 (RAS) to define, create and modify assets. It provides asset type specific search & governance, and measures asset reuse in development.

Rational Asset Manager handles any kind of asset, such as applications

Application software

Application software, also known as an application or an "app", is computer software designed to help the user to perform specific tasks. Examples include enterprise software, accounting software, office suites, graphics software and media players. Many application programs deal principally with...

, components

Component-based software engineering

Component-based software engineering is a branch of software engineering that emphasizes the separation of concerns in respect of the wide-ranging functionality available throughout a given software system...

, patterns

Design pattern (computer science)

In software engineering, a design pattern is a general reusable solution to a commonly occurring problem within a given context in software design. A design pattern is not a finished design that can be transformed directly into code. It is a description or template for how to solve a problem that...

, software that runs systems and products, services

Web service

A Web service is a method of communication between two electronic devices over the web.The W3C defines a "Web service" as "a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network". It has an interface described in a machine-processable format...

, frameworks

Software framework

In computer programming, a software framework is an abstraction in which software providing generic functionality can be selectively changed by user code, thus providing application specific software...

, templates, etc. Rational Asset Manager includes the following functionality:

Asset upload, download, update, packaging

• Support for asset types, asset categorization, attributes and asset relationships.

Security and access control

• Asset permissions based on groups, roles, users and asset types

Search

• Search using categories/facets/keywords
• File contents search, text, word, powerpoint, ear, war, zip files

Workflow & Review Boards

• Basic review/approval flow built in with configuration possible through integration with Rational ClearQuest
  Rational ClearQuest
  Rational ClearQuest is an enterprise level workflow automation tool from the Rational Software division of IBM. Commonly, ClearQuest is configured as a bug tracking system, but it can be configured to act as a CRM tool or to track a complex manufacturing process. It can also implement these...
  
  

Metrics and reporting

• Record usage, feedback
• Export delimited file

Collaboration

• Discussions, Email and RSS
  RSS
  -Mathematics:* Root-sum-square, the square root of the sum of the squares of the elements of a data set* Residual sum of squares in statistics-Technology:* RSS , "Really Simple Syndication" or "Rich Site Summary", a family of web feed formats...
  
   feeds

User interface

• Eclipse v3.2 client
  Eclipse (software)
  Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising an integrated development environment and an extensible plug-in system...
  
  
• Web Client

Process guidance

• Asset-based development guidance in Rational Method Composer

Create and update asset versions

• Support for Rational ClearCase
  Rational ClearCase
  The Rational ClearCase family consists of several software tools for supporting software configuration management of source code and other software development assets. It is developed by the Rational Software division of IBM...
  
  , Rational ClearQuest
  Rational ClearQuest
  Rational ClearQuest is an enterprise level workflow automation tool from the Rational Software division of IBM. Commonly, ClearQuest is configured as a bug tracking system, but it can be configured to act as a CRM tool or to track a complex manufacturing process. It can also implement these...
  
   and IBM WebSphere
  IBM WebSphere
  IBM WebSphere refers to a brand of computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create applications and integrate applications with other applications...
  
   Service Registry and Repository

Benefits

Rational Asset Manager provides several benefits for development organizations.

• Supports asset based development, warehousing and asset management
• Allows disparate teams to communicate securely and eliminate rework with asset traceability, categorization and utilization monitoring
• Implement compliant standards related to your intellectual property, providing the right level of access to countries, and/or teams.
• Mitigation of risks
  Risk management
  Risk management is the identification, assessment, and prioritization of risks followed by coordinated and economical application of resources to minimize, monitor, and control the probability and/or impact of unfortunate events or to maximize the realization of opportunities...
  
   and lower costs of meeting compliance
  Compliance (regulation)
  In general, compliance means conforming to a rule, such as a specification, policy, standard or law. Regulatory compliance describes the goal that corporations or public agencies aspire to in their efforts to ensure that personnel are aware of and take steps to comply with relevant laws and...
  
   mandates by securing Intellectual property
  Intellectual property
  Intellectual property is a term referring to a number of distinct types of creations of the mind for which a set of exclusive rights are recognized—and the corresponding fields of law...
  
  
• Straightforward discovery, storage and deployment of services in a service-oriented architecture
  Service-oriented architecture
  In software engineering, a Service-Oriented Architecture is a set of principles and methodologies for designing and developing software in the form of interoperable services. These services are well-defined business functionalities that are built as software components that can be reused for...
  
  
• Store information that is useful for collaborating on software development of Assets.
• Provides tools for defining, creating, reviewing and retrieving assets.
• Uses the Reusable Asset Specification
  Reusable Asset Specification
  Reusable Asset Specification is an Object Management Group standard to package digital artifacts.The specification is a set of guidelines and recommendations about the structure, content, and descriptionsof reusable software assets....
  
   to describe and classify assets
• Supports any kind of asset - source code, DLLs, documentation, presentations, patterns, process flows, etc.
• Enables you to implement asset based development to and succeed with reuse strategies, cutting development costs.
• Flexible access to assets via an Eclipse
  Eclipse (software)
  Eclipse is a multi-language software development environment comprising an integrated development environment and an extensible plug-in system...
  
   or Web client.
• Integrates with other Rational
  Rational Software
  Rational Machines was founded by Paul Levy and Mike Devlin in 1981 to provide tools to expand the use of modern software engineering practices, particularly explicit modular architecture and iterative development...
  
   and IBM
  IBM
  International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
  
   tools, such as Rational ClearCase
  Rational ClearCase
  The Rational ClearCase family consists of several software tools for supporting software configuration management of source code and other software development assets. It is developed by the Rational Software division of IBM...
  
  , Rational ClearQuest
  Rational ClearQuest
  Rational ClearQuest is an enterprise level workflow automation tool from the Rational Software division of IBM. Commonly, ClearQuest is configured as a bug tracking system, but it can be configured to act as a CRM tool or to track a complex manufacturing process. It can also implement these...
  
   or WebSphere Service Registry and Repository
  IBM WebSphere
  IBM WebSphere refers to a brand of computer software products in the genre of enterprise software known as "application and integration middleware". These software products are used by end-users to create applications and integrate applications with other applications...
  
  .

See also

• OMG Reusable Asset Specification

• Definitive Software Library
  Definitive Software Library
  A definitive software library is a secure location, consisting of physical media or a software repository located on a network file server, in which the definitive authorized versions of all software configuration items are stored and protected. The DSL is separate from development, quality...
  
  

External links

• Free online trial for Rational Asset Manager
• RAM
• Hello World: Learn how to install and use the Rational Asset Manager Eclipse client
• Product page for Rational Asset Manager
• IBM developerWorks page for Rational Asset Manager
• Asset lifecycle management for service-oriented architectures
• [ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/rational/web/whitepapers/10709147_Rational_RAM_WP_ACC.pdf Federated Metadata Management with IBM Rational and IBM WebSphere software]
• SOA Governance with Rational Asset Manager Software
• IBM Rational Architecture Management Team Blog
• Rational Asset Manager Information Centers