About ClearCase Unified Change Management (UCM)

Unified Change Management (UCM) is a structured development process that is based on DevOps Code ClearCase® tools.

When using UCM, developers participate in a structured workflow using high-level operations that eliminate the need to deal directly with individual branches and versions of files and directories.

Before developers can start using UCM, a project manager must define one or more UCM projects. The project manager creates the project as an object in a project VOB. This object contains only the metadata (for example, components, activities, policies) needed to manage and track the work on a product. It does not contain any project resources (source code, documentation, and so on).

Note: ClearCase and Eclipse use the term project to describe different aspects of software development. An Eclipse project defines a resource hierarchy such as a folder that contains Java source files. A ClearCase UCM project defines how a group of people manage changes to resources, using baselines, activities, and streams. Members of a UCM project can work on one or more Eclipse projects.

When developers join a UCM project, they use the Join Project wizard to complete the following steps.

  1. Select the Project VOB in which the project is defined.
  2. Join the project.
  3. Create a local UCM development view in which they can work on the project's components. (Some UCM projects, called single-stream projects, do not use development views. Instead, all developers work in the integration view.)
  4. Create a local UCM integration view to which they can deliver their work.

After the UCM ClearCase views have been created, developers load them with the versions of directory and file elements selected by the project’s recommended baseline. This ensures that all members of the project team start with the same set of resources.

Some ClearCase operations are specific to UCM projects, such as joining a UCM project, rebasing, delivering, selecting activities, and creating activities. Icons for common UCM options appear in the UCM toolbar: ucm toolbar.

Note: For UCM projects that are CQ-enabled, developers can make use of the ClearCase UCM integration with ClearQuest® to connect UCM activities to ClearQuest records.