Artifact: Tool Guidelines
 Tool Guidelines |
Describes how to use one or several tools. |
| Worker: | Tool Specialist |
| More information: | |
| Input to Activities: | Output from Activities: |
Purpose 
To describe how project members should use one or several tools. Tool guidelines typically covers:
- Installation information, such as version, configuration parameters.
- Limitations in functionality, and functionality that the project decided to not use.
- Workarounds.
- Integration with other tools, including procedures to follow, software to use, and principles to apply.
Timing
The tool guidelines should preferably be ready before the use of the tools take place. In reality, it is common that many problems cannot be foreseen, and are encountered by the project members as they start using the tools. This means that the tool specialists must keep themselves informed about the use of the tools, in order to keep the tool guidelines up to date.
Responsibility
A tool specialist is responsible for creating each tool guideline and for keeping it up-to-date during the project.
Tailoring
Normally there are several tool guidelines, where each tool guideline document covers one supporting tool, or a group of related tools. One decision to make is which tool guidelines you need to support the project.
For each tool guideline you need to decide how much information that is needed. Only put information that really helps the users. Keep in mind that there are other sources for information, such as the user's guide for the tool and any of the tool mentors in the Rational Unified Process.
The scope and level of detail of the tool guidelines depends to some extent on how much knowledge of the tool the project members have.
