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According to the Wikipedia details associated with IBM Rational ClearQuest the "latest" version of this product was released in October 2011.

Would I be right in assuming that this is no longer actively being actively developed by IBM and that their alternative Rational Team Concert is their preferred offering in this space?

DaveG
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2 Answers2

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Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm Howie Bernstein the ClearCase and ClearQuest product manager. Right now we are in an open beta with two significant features for ClearCase and ClearQuest. ClearCase is in beta with Role-based Access Control Lists for ClearCase elements, and ClearQuest is in beta with Multi-record update in ClearQuest Web (as well as a few other features). If you are presently a ClearCase or ClearQuest customer, you can access the open beta here: https://www14.software.ibm.com/iwm/web/cc/earlyprograms/rational/cacv801/

It would be a mistake to think of RTC as a replacement for ClearCase and ClearQuest. It would depend entirely on what features of ClearCase and ClearQuest your organization depends on. For organizations that make little use in ClearCase of dynamic views, process triggers, build auditing (and others) then perhaps switching to RTC SCM would be a reasonable consideration. The same can be said for ClearQuest. If your organization takes advantage of the advanced customization features of ClearQuest and depends on those features to execute your custom workflow, then RTC might not be a good solution for you.

In our development organization, we use all three, together. We use ClearQuest for external RFE and APAR submission and workflow, we use ClearCase for our SCM (on the ClearCase and ClearQuest teams, as well as other teams throughout IBM) and we use RTC for our work item planning and execution. We have excellent bridging and synchronization capabilities between CC/CQ and RTC that makes this possible.

As to the future, we have development teams working on new features in both ClearCase and ClearQuest and we plan to introduce new versions in the future.

Rais Alam
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Howie Bernstein
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  • +1, very complete answer, more accurate than mine. I don't consider RTC replacing ClearCase and ClearQuest, but more as providing an integration between various development life cycle stages (requests, code changes, builds) in order to facilitate audits and tracability from *one* referential. However, from the clients (I have been working with) perspective, using all three is a no-go, both in term of budget constraints (licenses for 3 products) and in term of referential managements (three different databases). – VonC Feb 12 '13 at 21:02
  • Hi VonC, I do agree that both budget constraints and administration are issues. For the former, I would like to make you aware that for ClearQuest we entitle users to RTC Contributor for free: http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21599656. We do have, and are working on additional solutions to address the budgetary issues with ClearCase. While RTC alone can provide a single database solution for ALM, it isn't always possible for our customers to leave ClearCase and ClearQuest. For those customers looking for an ALM solution we do the best we can. – Howie Bernstein Feb 13 '13 at 02:26
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ClearCase like ClearQuest are still "maintained", but without any new outstanding feature.

RTC is more an aggregation of three tools:

  • Work Items management (replacing ClearQuest)
  • Source Control management (Jazz source Control, replacing ClearCase)
  • Build Engine (like BuildForge, but also able to communicate with Hudson/Jenkins with RTC4)

So RTC isn't just a replacement to ClearQuest, but a way to ensure a traceability durng the application development life cycle:

  • from the initial request (Work Item)
  • to the code changes (source control)
  • to the build from a specific revision of the code (build engine)
VonC
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  • Thanks for the answer - what I meant by actively developed was that it was maintained but (for example) there wouldn't be a version 9.x - I think we're saying the same thing. As you said RTC is an ALM environment and so more comparable with something like HP ALM rather than an individual activity provider like ClearQuest. – DaveG Feb 11 '13 at 16:45
  • @DaveG yes, RTC is definitively more than just ClearQuest. More like a TFS on Microsoft side. – VonC Feb 11 '13 at 16:46