Getting Started with JazzHub
based on IBM Rational Team Concert 4.0
Part 1 – Getting Started
Part 2 – Creating your Project
Part 3 – Creating Work Items and Plans
Notes for :

ISYS3400 – Information Systems Project (Capstone)
Created by
John Schilt, IBM Australia
[email protected]
Version : August 9, 2012
Contents
Introduction ................................................................................................................................................................. 3
Part 1 – Getting Started ............................................................................................................................................... 4
Topic 1 – A brief introduction to JazzHub ................................................................................................................ 4
Topic 2 - Logging on to JazzHub ............................................................................................................................... 4
Part 2 – Creating your own Project .............................................................................................................................. 5
Topic 3 - Project Creation......................................................................................................................................... 5
Topic 4 – Project Administration.............................................................................................................................. 5
Create the project Timeline and Iterations .......................................................................................................... 6
Create a Team Area.............................................................................................................................................. 7
Create a Category................................................................................................................................................. 9
Part 3 - Creating Work Items and Plans ..................................................................................................................... 10
Topic 5 – Creating your first Work Items ............................................................................................................... 10
Creating an Assignment Work Item ................................................................................................................... 10
Creating a Deliverable (work item) .................................................................................................................... 11
Creating a Link between the Deliverable and the Assignment .......................................................................... 12
Topic 6 – Create your Iteration Plan ...................................................................................................................... 12
Exploring the Plan interface ............................................................................................................................... 13
Open a Work Item .............................................................................................................................................. 13
Create a new Work Item .................................................................................................................................... 15
Moving Work Items around a Plan .................................................................................................................... 15
Summary .................................................................................................................................................................... 16
Introduction
These lab exercises have been specifically created for ISYS3400 (Information Systems Project) at the University of
Sydney.
Students are invited to experience the use of a Project Management tool that is running in the cloud called
JazzHub. JazzHub is based on IBM’s Rational Team Concert 4.0. Rational Team Concert is used by large, medium
and small enterprises to manage a range of projects – especially projects that have a defined process and benefit
from collaboration and strict workflow rules.
For this subject, students (Teams) are being asked to create their own project, and manage the common artefacts
that in other circumstances are created by the Academic staff (ie, assignments, timelines, Teams, membership,
etc).
In the Week 3 Lab, you will be taken through a demonstration of a Project Creation as well as all the Project Setup
steps. The objective of this is to give you some experience in using online project management and collaboration
tools that are commonly used in the IT industry in Australia and around the world.
Your Project description and outline will be visible to others that use JazzHub (Universities all over the world) –
but not the contents of the project itself (ie, Plans, Work Items, attachments, etc).
The web site that hosts JazzHub is: https://hub.jazz.net
For your information, the steps that you will go through in this lab (and subsequently during the life of the
capstone) are :
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
7)
8)
9)
10)
Create your Jazz ID
Create your team’s Project
Create your project Timelines
Create your team area, add members, assign roles
Create your first Work Item : Assignment
Create your first Deliverables
Create your Iteration Plan
Create and manage Work Items (Deliverables and Tasks)
Collaboration in JazzHub (Discussion threads, attachments, workflow)
Manage your plan
If you have questions or issues with JazzHub, you may like to ask your question in the JazzHub Forum :
https://jazz.net/forum/tags/jazzhub/
If you have questions on how to use JazzHub in this capstone assignment, ask your tutor or supervisor.
Part 1 – Getting Started
Topic 1 – A brief introduction to JazzHub
JazzHub is an application in the Cloud (Software as a Service) that is based on an IBM tool called Rational Team
Concert. IBM Rational Team Concert integrates task tracking, source control, and agile planning and a
configurable process to adapt to the way you work. A great collaboration tool for managing projects and
assignments.
Some definitions:
Name
Project / Project Area
Roles
Plans
Assignment
Deliverable
Tasks
Work Items
Team / Team Areas
Iterations
Definition
Area that is given a name and resides in the JazzHub Cloud repository. Each Project can be
either public or private (or anything in between depending on the security settings). The
JazzHub repository resides on a server somewhere in the US and has hundreds of projects
belonging to Universities around the world.
Members of a JazzHub project are assigned Roles. In these assignments, there are only three
roles : Professor, Teaching Assistant and Students.
A grouping of Work Items by Team and Iteration. Using Plans is the best way to organise and
review your plans / assignments, Plans are created by each Team.
A type of Work Item (highest level), usually created by the Professor. In this assignment, Teams
will create their Assignment Work Items.
A type of Work Item (should be linked to the Assignment), usually created by each Team.
A type of Work Item (linked to a Deliverable or another Task). Usually created by Students.
Work items are the fundamental mechanism in JazzHub to track and coordinate development
tasks and workflows, all governed by your team's associated process.
Are groups of members of the Project into a single security unit.
A step or deadline in a project (Week 12).
Topic 2 - Logging on to JazzHub
First, you must get your own Jazz ID. Once you have set up your Jazz ID, you can log into JazzHub.
https://hub.jazz.net
Remember to use your University email address and always use lower case when creating your Jazz ID.
Once you have logged on, your team will create your own Project.
Part 2 – Creating your own Project
Topic 3 - Project Creation
From the previous screen, click on Create a Project. Select Academic Initiative and click on Next.
From the Create a Project screen:
-
give your project a name : please use naming convention “ISYS3400 USYD xxxx “ (where xxxx is your
team/project name).
Give your project a description (this is what the outside world will see
Name your institution
Use [email protected] as your sponsor
Click on Next
Agree to the Terms of Use and click on Create Project
The project creation takes a minute or two.
Once the project has been created, you will see the Project Welcome Screen:
Topic 4 – Project Administration
In this step, you will create the Project Timelines, Team Area, and add your team members to the project and team
area.
To do this, you need to go to the Project Area. If you scroll down and look at the right hand side of your browser,
under Project Details, you will see a Project Area link. Click on the Project Area link.
You are now in the Project Area :
On the left hand side, you will see a range of options. We will use these (Overview, Timelines, and Categories)
during the next few steps.
Create the project Timeline and Iterations
Click on Timelines, highlight Main Timeline, and click on Create Iteration (right menu) and fill is as per picture below
:
Clock OK to create the Semester Iteration.
Create another iteration (Week 12) – make sure that it falls under Semester 2. It should look like this.
Create a Team Area
Click on Overview to return to the main Project Area . You will notice the Team Area Hierarchy on the right hand
side.
Highlight your Project Name and click on the Create Team (
) button.
Give your team area a name (I would suggest Team 1). You are creating this team to aggregate the work items in
the Project as well as to ensure tighter security for your project work items and artefacts (ie, others can’t see your
work).
For the moment, just give the new team a Name and click on Save (top right hand corner).
Save your work , often, as you make changes.
Always remember to
You can now Add Members to your Team. Click on Add, enter their Jazz ID’s (first few characters). The member’s
name should appear in the list. Select the member and click on Add. Repeat this process until you have added all
the members you want to add to the Team Area (you also have to add your own Jazz ID as well). For the last one,
you can click on Add and Close.
You now have to assign roles to the members of your team. If you hover over actions and click on Process Roles
– you can can assign roles to each team member. Assign the roles as ‘Student’ for the student team members and
the academics / tutors / project supervisors as ‘Professor’. You should also as your project stakeholders to get a
Jazz ID and you can add them as team members as well (Students).
Remember to press Save. This time around, you will notice that JazzHub is planning on sending invitation letters
to the new Members of the Team (inviting them to the Team). New Team members do NOT have to accept the
invitation – simply log on to JazzHub and open up the Project that they are a member of.
Before you proceed to the next step, you will need to add all team members to the Project Area as well.
This step is important. The above actions have added new members to the Team Area – the next actions will add
members to the Project Area. In some circumstances, members need only be part of a Team Area (and not a
Project Area). For this assignment – we will add all members to the team as members of the Project as well.
Click on the name of your project in the Breadcrumbs are (Active Project Areas > ISYS3400 USYD xxxx).
This will take you back to the Project Area / Overview . Repeat the above process to add members to the Project.
Assign the same roles (Students and Professors).
Note : one exception to the above – the person who created the Project has been assigned a role as Professor as
a default. Leave this as is. One member of the team should have the role of Professor.
Create a Category
To ensure the work that you create in the JazzHub repository remains secure and private, you need to create a
Category for your Team Area.
From the main Project Area, click on Categories:
Click on the
and select Add Category. Give the Category name the same name as your Team Area name.
Click on the Associated Project / Team Area row of your new Category, select your Team Area and click on
associate. Also, remember to click on Restrict Category Visibility as well as Restrict Work Item Access. Make sure
your categories look like Team 0 below.
Don’t forget to click on Save to save your work.
Congratulations. You have now created a Project, a project Timeline, a Team Area, and added Members. In the
next section, you will start to create Project Work Items.
Part 3 - Creating Work Items and Plans
In this project, given that we are using the Academic Process – we will need to create a number of Work Items
and a Plan to enable us to manage our work and allow for organised collaboration and participation of all project
members. The Academic Process assumes that a Work Item of type Assignment is created, as well as work items
of type Deliverable are created.
Topic 5 – Creating your first Work Items
In this topic you will create two Work Items – an Assignment and a Deliverable.
Creating an Assignment Work Item
To work on things such as Work Items and Plans, you have to shift from the Project Area to the Explore Project (or
Dashboard Area).
From your previous screen, click on Explore Project. You should see a screen that looks like this :
This will be the screen from which you will do most of your work – creating new Widgets (queries) and working with
Work Items and Plans.
To create a new Work Item of type Assignment – click on Work Items and then (wait for a few seconds) click on
Create a Work Item (Assignment). Your next screen will look as follows. Enter a Summary (name – say
Capstone Assignment), leave Filed Against as ‘unassigned’, in Planned for, selected Week 12 (one of the
Timelines we created before). You can enter a due date for this Assignment.
Press Save.
Now is a good time to update the Status of the Assignment to Start (top right hand side of the Work Item screen).
Press Save, again.
Once the Assignment Work Item has been saved, create another work item of type Deliverable. Follow the same
process as above.
Creating a Deliverable (work item)
Deliverables are Work Items that in this capstone project you can have some flexibility when naming. They
represent the stages or milestones of your project. Your first Deliverable may be called Project Overview, or
Interviewing the Client, etc... each of these have clear Deliverables and probably will closely match your weekly
topic list .
For this Work Item (Deliverable), make sure you File Against your Team Area – and Plan it for the correct Iteration
(ie, Week 12). Planning all your Work Items against Week 12 (and filing against your team) will ensure that they
appear in your project’s Iteration Plan.
Make sure you Save the Work Item.
Creating a Link between the Deliverable and the Assignment
We now need to create a Link between the Deliverable and the Assignment. Click on Links in the above screen
(when editing Work Item : Deliverable).
From the Links screen, click on Related (down arrow) and then click on Parent.
Click on Search by Query – then expand Predefined Queries. Scroll down the list and select Open Assignments.
JazzHub will then run a query in the background and show all Open Assignments. There should only be one (the
one you just created). Select the Assignment and then OK.
Click on Save to make sure the Work Item Deliverable has been saved.
Almost there! You have created two Work Items – an Assignment and a Deliverable. We now have to create an
Iteration Plan. Once this is done – you can start to manage your project online with JazzHub.
Topic 6 – Create your Iteration Plan
From the same screen above, click on Plans, Create Plans, and Sprint Backlog.
Give the Plan a name (this should be your only Plan in the assignment) – you could call it Capstone Plan
ISYS3400 or something similar. Before saving your plan, make sure that you select an Owner (your team) and
Iteration (Week 12).
Click on Save.
When the Plan has loaded, click on Roadmap in the View As field. Your Plan should look similar to this one:
From this screen, you will be able to :
-
Create new Deliverable (work items)
Create new Tasks (and move them under the appropriate work items)
Assign Ownership to each Deliverable or Task
Enter an Effective Estimate (time for the task to finish)
-
Add / move columns in the Plan Display – use the Edit Plan View icon for this (
)
If you make any changes – make sure to press the Save button. You can check the Auto-Save , and this will help.
But it always helps to check to see if your Iteration Plan has any unsaved changes (and this WILL happen).
Exploring the Plan interface
When looking at your Plan (in Roadmap view), you are able to manage many aspects of your Project.
In your case, work as a Team to decide who will ‘own’ the first Deliverable. The owner of this Work Item should
change the status of this to Start at the appropriate time – and ensure that all Tasks and subtasks have owners and
Effective Estimates (time to complete task).
Open a Work Item
From your Plan (Roadmap view) – click on a Deliverable (or Task later on). This opens up the Work Item:
From this screen, you can :
a) Change team ownership of the Work Item (not necessary given only one team in your Project)
b) Add a Description to the Deliverable or Task (ie, What is the objective of this Deliverable?)
c) Add some comments (Discussion) to this Work Item. Each Team Member should provide feedback / add
some comments on how each Deliverable / Task is going. Click on the Add Comment, type your comment,
and make sure you click on Save.
d) Add an Attachment – to do this, click on the Links hyperlink :
For your Capstone Project, you may want to add your Weekly attachments to the main Deliverable task, but Final
(project) attachments – add them to the Last Deliverable (this may be called Project Deliverables).
(Note : always press Save every time you make a change to a Task or Plan)
Create a new Work Item
From the Plan (Roadmap view), you can create new Work Items (ie, Deliverables or Tasks) and then allocate them
to the correct part of your plan.
Click on Add Work Item (
the space provided and press tab.
) and select Deliverable or Task. Enter a Work Item description in
You can do this a number of times. Your screen should now be similar to the following.
Remember to Save the Plan regularly as you may changes / additions.
You may have a mixture of Deliverables and Tasks.
Moving Work Items around a Plan
You can now ‘move’ the Deliverables and Tasks from their default position in the Plan to where you want them to
be. Moving a Work Item is easy. Just ‘grab’ the handle ( ) of the Work Item with the mouse and drag it and
release on top of the target work item. It will look like this when finished:
Press Save every time you make changes to the Plan or a Work Item.
Note : you may notice an * next to any area of the Project that has unsaved items. If you do not regularly save the
work – you will risk losing your updates.
Important : when you create Work Items when in an Iteration Plan – the system knows what Team to file the Work
Item against and what Timeline to plan the Work Item against. It also knows what Links to create (ie, when you
drag and drop a Work Item, its link are automatically updated.
You can now make further changes to the Plan, including assigning Owners to each new Task, a duration, or open
up the new Tasks and add attachments or Comments. Remember to Save the Plan regularly as you make
changes / additions.
Now you are ready to create more Deliverable, Tasks and sub-Tasks, assign owners and durations, add comments
and attachments.
Summary
Congratulations on reaching this far. We hope that your experience has been positive and that you have enjoyed
leveraging the power of IBM Rational Team Concert in the cloud.
You are welcome to make further use of JazzHub with other university assignments, capstone or research
projects. If interested, you can reach out to me and let me know if I can help you in creating / setup of JazzHub
Projects.
Contact : John Schilt , IBM Australia
(email address : [email protected] )