1) An individual (the resource adapter deployer) configures the ra.xml deployment descriptor.
Metadata is read from ra.xml or the annotations - instances of the classes are created and the values injected.
2) The individual deploys the configured resource adapter in the application server. The deployment can be done using a deployment tool or by some other means supported by the application server.
The connection factories and admin objects are bound in JNDI.
3) The application server bootstraps the configured resource adapter. Section 5.3.1 defines bootstrapping as follows:
The container calls the start() method after which the resource adapter is ready to serve requests.
HTH