Rational Team Concert for Project Managers

Foundations

Rational Team Concert (RTC)

IBM's collaborative ALM tool integrating planning, work item tracking, source control, and build.

Project Manager Role

Plans and steers delivery in RTC — managing scope, schedule, work, and progress with the team.

Integrated Planning

RTC connects plans to actual work items and delivery so progress reflects reality.

Agile and Traditional

RTC supports agile, formal, and hybrid processes through configurable process templates.

Planning

Timelines

The structure of releases and iterations that defines the project's cadence.

Iterations

Timeboxed cycles used to plan and deliver increments of work.

Plans

RTC plans (e.g., release and iteration plans) that organize and schedule work items.

Backlog Management

Ordering and refining work items so the team pulls the highest-value work.

Capacity Planning

Balancing planned work against team availability for a realistic plan.

Estimation

Recording estimates on work items to forecast and manage scope.

Tracking

Dashboards

Configurable pages of widgets showing status, progress, and risks at a glance.

Queries

Saved searches that filter work items to monitor specific aspects of the project.

Reports

Generated summaries — burndown, velocity, defect trends — used to steer delivery.

Burndown and Burnup

Charts showing remaining or completed work over time to track progress.

Progress and Load

Views showing how much work is done and how loaded the team is.

Managing Work

Work Items

Tracked units of work with fields, states, and history that managers organize and monitor.

Prioritization

Ordering work by value and risk so the team focuses on what matters most.

Risk and Impediment Tracking

Capturing and managing risks and blockers to keep delivery on track.

Traceability

Linking work to requirements, code, and tests for visibility and impact analysis.

Steering

Data-Driven Decisions

Using RTC metrics and reports to make informed decisions about scope and schedule.

Adjusting the Plan

Re-planning as reality unfolds, moving work across iterations as needed.

Best Practices

PM Best Practices

Realistic plans, current work items, meaningful dashboards, and steering by data and feedback.