IBM Software

Design and Development

The Rational Rhapsody family

from IBM
Collaborative systems engineering and embedded
software development
2 The Rational Rhapsody family from IBM

Model-driven development helps build a Unified Modeling Language (UML) standards. Throughout
competitive edge the development process, the Rational Rhapsody family assists
How do systems engineers and software developers, creating in managing complexity through visualization and helps main-
embedded and real-time applications, meet the demands for tain consistency across the development life cycle to facilitate
complex, robust deliverables—especially when there is little agility in response to ever changing requirements.
time to produce, let alone test, the systems and software
before they go into production? With its robust SysML/UML-based environment and model-
driven development (MDD) approach, the Rational Rhapsody
In fields such as automotive electronics, avionic controls, family of products helps in addressing the needs of both sys-
next-generation wireless infrastructures, consumer electronics, tems engineers and software developers. The IBM Rational
medical devices and industrial automation, systems engineers Rhapsody family of products has been recognized by engineers
and software designers are facing intense global competition. and developers as the leading MDD solution in a wide variety
of industries including aerospace, defense, automotive,
To overcome these challenges, IBM provides the telecommunications, medical devices, consumer electronics,
IBM® Rational® Rhapsody® family of products. energy, semi conductor equipment, industrial controls, and
many others.
Now you have the potential for faster development and
delivery of the high-quality solutions your customers need. Enable faster, more agile software
The powerful, flexible modeling capabilities of the Rational development
Rhapsody family of products provide a systems and software The SysML/UML–compliant Rational Rhapsody product line
development solution that operates across the requirements, includes products that focus on the needs of systems engineers
specification, design, implementation, and testing phases of and embedded software developers. It offers a collaborative
the development life cycle. development environment that allows both large and small
teams to communicate effectively and productively. Integrated
Rational Rhapsody solutions are designed to accelerate devel- requirements management and traceability features can help
opment, manage complexity, enhance testability, reduce costs
and improve quality by leveraging the Object Management
Group’s (OMG’s) Systems Modeling Language (SysML) and
 IBM Software 3

ensure that the product designs meet stakeholder require- Rational Rhapsody solutions promote an agile design
ments. Model-driven testing capabilities help reduce defects approach in which users repeatedly execute and validate soft-
early in the process and help ensure validation against ware on the host environment and then bring it down to the
requirements. embedded target for testing. Rational Rhapsody solutions lend
themselves to a design approach in which software develop-
Rational Rhapsody Developer solutions can help accelerate ment can be continuously executed and validated on the
development by generating full applications and not just code host environment to discover defects early in the
frames, which can be built and tested on a host platform development process.
before the target hardware is available. These applications can
then be quickly retargeted to the hardware by using the pro- Enhance quality and productivity with an
vided execution framework—empowering developers to rap- industry-leading solution
idly deliver and companies to leap ahead of their competition. The Rational Rhapsody MDD environment for embedded
software, systems and testing concentrates on product depth
Using a model-driven development (MDD) approach with for a truly world-class experience—one that has been hailed
Rational Rhapsody solutions, the development teams can by critics as a top modeling product for systems, software and
attain better productivity than with traditional document- testing. By integrating and automating the systems and soft-
driven approaches. This is because the MDD approach ware engineering process to achieve deployable systems, the
enables users to graphically depict the system design and open architecture of IBM Rational Rhapsody solutions facili-
architecture and then use simulation to validate the system tates new levels of quality and productivity.
as it is being built. With MDD, engineers and developers
have the tools they need to produce a system specification These solutions provide a flexible environment that an
designed to be complete, correct and unambiguous. The organization can tailor to its existing domain and tool chain
Rational Rhapsody solutions support a model-driven architec- by extending the language to its domain-specific modeling. In
ture (MDA) which enables engineers and developers to rapidly addition, customization is available through powerful applica-
turn a platform-independent model (PIM) into a platform- tion programming interfaces (APIs), enabling development
specific model (PSM). A PSM targets a real-time embedded automation to increase productivity and enabling integration
operating system, a multicore processor environment or a with other life cycle tools such as configuration management,
simple scheduler. requirements management and analysis or other modeling
capabilities.
 4 The Rational Rhapsody family from IBM

The Rational Rhapsody family of products provides solutions IBM Rational Rhapsody solutions for
focused on the needs of specific industries and technologies. systems engineers
Support for AUTOSAR is provided for development of auto- The IBM Rational Rhapsody family of products gives systems
motive systems from concept to production code. Capabilities engineers the tools to specify a system correctly—and to com-
are included to assist in the development and visualization of municate the system more effectively to all stakeholders in the
applications targeting multi-core processors and the Android development process. Simulation capabilities also enable engi-
platform for mobile device development. Further, the Rational neers to drastically reduce errors in the model early in the
Rhapsody product family supports DoDAF (Department of process, when the cost of fixes is significantly lower than dur-
Defense Architecture Framework), MODAF (Ministry of ing testing or deployment.
Defense Architecture Framework) and UPDM standards for
architecting system of systems design. The solutions provide Rhapsody solutions for systems engineering are designed
Data Distribution for Real-Time Systems (DDS) for develop- to be:
ing applications leveraging publish subscribe communications
of data. ● Intuitive: The Rational Rhapsody Designer for Systems
Engineers and Rational Rhapsody Architect for
Systems Engineers software packages present features in a
layout designed to appear natural and with a workflow
“ As embedded software and systems designed to work intuitively.
developers’ project demands continue to ● Correct: Using a SysML/UML environment enables systems
become more complex amid unrelenting engineers to clearly and unambiguously capture require-
ments and design. The software’s check-model capability is
time-to-market pressures, VDC expects designed to help ensure that the model and its interfaces are
that modeling tools that can efficiently complete and correct. And the built-in simulation environ-
integrate legacy code within new designs ment in the Rational Rhapsody Developer and Rational
Rhapsody Designer for Systems Engineers tools helps
will increasingly be placed at a premium.” validate design behavior early in the development cycle.

—Chris Rommel, Analyst, VDC Embedded Software Practice

 IBM Software 5

● Managed: The Rational Rhapsody Gateway component of the Eclipse platform enabling developers to enjoy the code
the Rational Rhapsody Tools and Utilities Add-On product development capabilities of Eclipse and modeling benefits of
provides a powerful traceability solution that uses a bidirec- Rational Rhapsody software in a single environment. Rational
tional interface between the model and leading requirements Rhapsody Developer solutions can generate applications in C,
management and authoring products such as Rational C++, Java, C# and Ada programming languages targeting
DOORS® and Rational RequisitePro® software—helping 8-bit, 16-bit, 32-bit, 64-bit or multi-core targets using a
ensure that the design covers requirements. real-time framework. The solution provides state-charts de
● Automatic: At the push of a button, components included in fining behavior and build artifacts to target leading real time
Rational Rhapsody Tools and Utilities Add-On solution can operating systems.
automatically produce customizable systems engineering
specification documents. Rational Rhapsody solutions for software development are
designed to be:
IBM Rational Rhapsody solutions for
software developers ● Efficient: Software development can begin on the host to
Rational Rhapsody solutions provide a visual software devel- validate functional behavior, or perform trade studies for
opment environment for C++, C, Java™, C# or Ada program- multi-core targets, early—even before target hardware is
ming languages that enables developers to work in a flexible available. After the target is available, the developer can use
fashion that synchronizes changes in C++, C, Java, C# or Ada target resources more efficiently by focusing on debugging
code with the model and also to visualize external code within target-specific issues.
the modeling environment for better understanding and
further development. Rational Rhapsody solutions plug into
6 The Rational Rhapsody family from IBM

Figure 1: Rational Rhapsody software’s advanced simulation capabilities and multicore support combine to assist in architecting multicore applications.
 IBM Software 7

● Automated: Combined with its real-time execution frame- with DoDAF in the United States and MODAF in the United
work, IBM Rational Rhapsody Developer software can gen- Kingdom. This enables systems and software engineers to
erate code from structural and behavioral model views, work in the language best suited to the project’s needs, regard-
along with build artifacts, to produce an executable applica- less of industry or embedded device. For industry-specific
tion for C, C++, Java or Ada more quickly than manually development, Rhapsody solutions are designed to be:
typing code. It can meet many MISRA-C and C++ coding
standards for projects concerned with coding standards. ● Consistent: Because the diagrams in a Rational Rhapsody
● Collaborative: Development projects rarely start from model are interrelated, changes to an element in one
scratch; they’re usually based on existing code and leverage diagram are automatically propagated across the model,
third-party libraries. Rational Rhapsody solutions graphi- enhancing data consistency across systems.
cally represent existing code and leverage external code ● Traceable: The Rational Rhapsody for DoDAF, MODAF,
within the model to build and document applications and and UPDM Add-On solution uses standard UPDM,
improve team communication. DoDAF and MODAF diagrams and notations to support
● Flexible: Rational Rhapsody solutions enable a code-centric the design, construction and analysis of compliant DoDAF
workflow, easing MDD adoption. Whether changes are or MODAF architectures. This enables engineers and devel-
made in the model or within the code, they are dynamically opers to validate their architecture by simulating the model,
updated in both. Developers who prefer a model-based automatically generating the derived products and generat-
approach can design at a higher level of abstraction, analyze ing comprehensive DoDAF or MODAF documentation
and validate the design at the graphical level, and produce while achieving traceability.
code and documentation automatically. A combination of ● Reusable: IBM Rational Rhapsody software offers solutions
approaches is also possible. designed specifically for automotive systems and software
● Feature-rich: The IBMTHSPACERational Rhapsody family applications. Rational Rhapsody software offered one of the
provides a feature-rich solution for designing, developing, first AUTOSAR-specific MDD environments to build on
testing and implementing robust, high-quality code in an the power of SysML and UML. Now automotive engineers
environment that has multiple domain-specific language can define and dynamically analyze requirements in SysML
capabilities. that flow down into the software architecture and behavior
designed using UML. From UML production application
The IBM Rational Rhapsody family of C code can be generated for the software component that
integrates with the AUTOSAR RTE.
products across industries
IBM Rational Rhapsody solutions use the industry’s leading
modeling languages—SysML and UML—as well as specific
domain extensions for C developers and developers working
8 The Rational Rhapsody family from IBM

Figure 2: Rational Rhapsody solutions integrate into the Eclipse environment, creating a powerful platform for model and code development and
debugging.
 IBM Software 9

Management and traceability for automatically create coverage tests from the design. The
integrated requirements graphical panel feature provided in the Rational Rhapsody
The IBM Rational Rhapsody family of products offers inte- Tools and Utilities Add On solution helps bring the design to
grated requirements management and traceability solutions life with a mock-up or prototype that simulates the design
for even the most complex projects, providing users with the with elements such as knobs, meters or buttons, enabling early
requirements capture, traceability and analysis capabilities they validation and communication of functional behavior.
need from requirements, design, test cases and code.
IBM Rational Rhapsody Gateway software features a bidirec- Using the IBM Rational Rhapsody TestConductor Add On
tional interface to requirements management products, solution, engineers and developers can create unit test cases
including Rational DOORS, Rational RequisitePro, graphically using UML sequence diagrams, state charts, activ-
Microsoft® Word and Microsoft Excel, enabling comprehen- ity diagrams or flowcharts. They can also develop test cases in
sive traceability analysis. code. Not only can graphical test cases help customers and
project stakeholders better understand code tests, they can
Rational Rhapsody solutions can capture project requirements also help communicate intended behavior more effectively.
using requirements diagrams, use-case diagrams, sequence The solution creates a unified repository with requirements,
diagrams, activity diagrams and state charts. Users may then implementation and test cases all stored within the same envi-
create traceability links from the model, including test cases, ronment which can be managed as part of the overall product
to the requirements, automatically providing comprehensive test plan with the IBM Rational Quality Manager software.
traceability, impact analysis and coverage documentation.
Rational Rhapsody software can generate requirements infor- The Rational Rhapsody Test Conductor Add On tool can
mation from the model into the code to provide full life cycle automate the testing process by automatically creating a test
traceability from requirements, design, and implementation. architecture, driving inputs into the system under test and
monitoring outputs to automate the validation of the design
against the requirements on host or target. Testing can also be
Model-driven testing to support quality
done on external code not developed in the Rational
design Rhapsody tool to visualize and automate testing of previously
Rational Rhapsody model-driven testing (MDT) is a new
developed or third party code. Developers can manually create
paradigm that helps bring the benefits of MDD to the testing
a suite of test cases for unit testing or regression testing, or
process. MDT enables engineers to iteratively simulate a
they can leverage sequence diagrams created during
design to locate errors early in the process, automate tedious
simulation.
testing, incorporate requirements-based testing to validate
the design against requirements and use the Rational
Rhapsody Automatic Test Generation Add On capabilities to
10 The Rational Rhapsody family from IBM

Figure 3: Using realistic simulation panels, designers can iteractively simulate and debug software.
 IBM Software 11

Collaborative development with

enhanced documentation “ Model-driven development with UML
Reporting tools available within the Rational Rhapsody Tools
and Utilities Add On can help simplify the delivery and main- and SysML has become essential for
tenance of design documentation over the life of a project. improving productivity and quality of
Features include the ability to synchronize design, documenta- embedded software development.
tion and code and create documentation in text, HTML, rich
text format (RTF), Microsoft PowerPoint or Microsoft Word
IBM Rational Rhapsody provides features
directly from the design. For formal reports and design that enable embedded developers to
reviews, wizard-based document generation tools can help validate their designs early and improve
you easily update or regenerate documentation each time the
design changes.
productivity. Rhapsody’s unique support for
both code-centric and model-centric work-
The Rational Rhapsody family of products promotes concur- flows should help traditional coders more
rent, collaborative engineering by integrating with leading
configuration management tools such as IBM Rational Team
easily adopt model-driven development,
Concert™ software, IBM Rational ClearCase® software and and its support for strategic software asset
IBM Rational Synergy software to manage the model informa- reuse will enable organizations to more
tion for parallel development. Rational Rhapsody solution
effectively leverage their intellectual
provides graphical differencing and merging capabilities that
integrate within the change management life cycle to manage property.”
branching and merging for parallel development across proj-
ects, organizations or globally distributed teams. —Dr. Jerry Krasner, Embedded Market Forecasters
Why IBM?
The Rational Rhapsody product family offers MDD and
MDT environments for systems engineers and software
developers throughout the product development life cycle—
from requirements capture to implementation and system
acceptance testing. Based on industry-standard SysML/UML © Copyright IBM Corporation 2010

languages and providing visual development of C, C++, Java, IBM Corporation

C# and Ada languages from model-based designs, Rational Software Group
Route 100
Rhapsody solutions promote early validation of design behav- Somers, NY 10589
ior through simulation and execution to identify design errors U.S.A.
when they are introduced—and less costly to fix. Produced in the United States of America
June 2010
IBM Rational Rhapsody products address a broad range of All Rights Reserved
system, software and test development challenges, including IBM, the IBM logo, ibm.com, ClearCase, DOORS, Rhapsody, Rational,
targeting multicore processors, Android, AUTOSAR, and RequisitePro, and Team Concert are trademarks or registered trademarks
of the International Business Machines Corporation in the United States,
DDS. Designed for ease of use, early design validation and
other countries, or both. If these and other IBM trademarked terms are
increased productivity—including integration within the marked on their first occurrence in this information with a trademark
Eclipse platform—these solutions can help embedded and symbol (® or ™), these symbols indicate U.S. registered or common law
trademarks owned by IBM at the time this information was published.
real-time developers to more quickly and easily build and
Such trademarks may also be registered or common law trademarks in
deliver the complex, robust, high-quality products that today’s other countries. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the web
marketplace demands. at “Copyright and trademark information” at
ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml

For more information Microsoft and Windows are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the
United States, other countries, or both.
To learn more about the IBM Rational Rhapsody family
of products, please contact your IBM marketing Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks of Sun
Microsystems, Inc., in the United States, other countries, or both.
representative or IBM Business Partner, or visit:
ibm.com/software/awdtools/rhapsody Other company, product, or service names may be trademarks or service
marks of others.

References in this publication to IBM products or services do not imply

that IBM intends to make them available in all countries in which
IBM operates.

The information contained in this document is provided for informational

purposes only and provided “as is” without warranty of any kind, express
or implied. In addition, this information is based on IBM’s current
product plans and strategy, which are subject to change by IBM without
notice. Without limiting the foregoing, all statements regarding
IBM future direction or intent are subject to change or withdrawal
without notice and represent goals and objectives only. Nothing contained
in this documentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating
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governing the use of IBM software.

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