Archive for November, 2009

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Subversion Guru training course – update

November 19, 2009

Some of you may be aware that I have been spending a considerable amount of time since February working on a Subversion training course. As with many projects this one turned out to be more work than I anticipated, I fear my ambitions for the project somewhat overtook my capacity to complete all the work. Anyway, long story short, I am rapidly approaching completion of the first course.

The first course represents only a part of the whole project and focusses on the Subversion command line client. Although there are still a number of video demonstrations to be completed for the client course, I am comfortable that those that I have completed, along with the extensive web site content, make a good value proposition and deal with all the major client commands.

So, by the end of November 2009 I should be launching the Subversion Command Line Client Training course. This course will be available for a mere £25. I feel sure that this is the most comprehensive, and certainly best value for money, course currently available for the Subversion client.

Not only that but this course will continue to be updated as I complete the final editing of the videos that did not quite make it in time for the launch. Anyone buying the launch version will automatically receive all of these updates without any further charge.

Also, I intend to launch the larger Subversion Guru course at the same time. This is a much larger training course that will ultimately cover all aspects of setting up a Subversion installation (client, server, repositories, usage and administration). Because this is a Beta version of the course (and therefore will not contain all of the final material in this first release) I will be making it available at a massively reduced rate. Users purchasing at this reduced rate will continue to receive all updates as the course matures, at no extra cost.

The initial Beta will be available for only £35 (the final course will be £75). That’s under half price, but the course contains much more than half the final content. As material is added I will increase the price to reflect the increased value of the course.

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Differentiating Configuration Items from Components

November 17, 2009

Configuration management literature is replete with references to something called a ‘configuration item’ and most attempt to explain what a configuration item is. Despite this there remains confusion. “Should all files in my software system be a configuration item?” is a common enough question to raise concern that the concept of configuration item is not fully understood.

A configuration item is the unit of change for the configuration management system. A configuration item may consist of one or more other configuration items (sub-configuration items) and may also consist of one or more components. A component is always part of a configuration item; components cannot exist within a configuration management system independent of the configuration item hierarchy.

So, in software systems files are often only components. Configuration items within software systems tend to be larger entities such as sub-systems or libraries. The precise level at which you choose to identify a configuration item will depend upon where you want to exercise change control.