Archive for category Configuration Management
Parallel development: theory and practice
Posted by Mark in Configuration Management, ITSLM, Parallel Development Principles, Plain Old Blog, Software Configuration Management, Version Control on February 10, 2010
Having spent the past couple of weeks with a client working through the issues that need to be carefully considered when version controlling software, and in particular how to manage and control parallel development. I have come to three conclusions: People are often more afraid of the perceived problems than the practical realities of parallel [...]
Who’s afraid of the big bad merge?
Posted by Mark in CMCrossroads, Parallel Development Principles, Plain Old Blog, Software Configuration Management, Version Control on February 1, 2010
A common objection to using parallel development is the fear of the inevitable merging required to reintegrate the changes as the development proceeds. In this post I will take a look at some of the issues that arise from managing parallel development and, perhaps more importantly, provide some guidance on how to avoid the pitfalls [...]
Holographic Configuration Management
Posted by Mark in CMCrossroads, Configuration Management, Plain Old Blog on January 14, 2010
The advent of the ‘cloud’ and the idea of massively distributed systems (think grid computing and SaaS) is the latest technology swing with the potential to impact configuration management practice. I say ‘potential’ because a properly designed and implemented configuration management system will be able to copy without too much difficulty. The main impact will be [...]
Stubbing in build processes
Posted by Mark in Build Management, CMCrossroads, Configuration Management, ITSLM, Plain Old Blog on January 5, 2010
When developing systems of any size the development team inevitably encounters the following problem. The developers of one sub-system need access to functionality to be provided by another, but the second sub-system is not in a position to provide the functionality and probably will not be for some time. When this happens it is common [...]
Differentiating Configuration Items from Components
Posted by Mark in CMCrossroads, Configuration Management, Plain Old Blog, Software Configuration Management on 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 [...]
Software Configuration Management: An Investement in Product Integrity
Posted by Mark in Book Review, CMCrossroads, Plain Old Blog, Software Configuration Management on October 1, 2009
For me, this book holds a special significance. This is the very first book I ever read that dealt exclusively with software configuration management. For me, this book started a career and lifelong passion for software product integrity and software configuration management in particular. Title: Software Configuration Management: An Investment in Product Integrity Authors: Bersoff, [...]
Forensic Configuration Management
Posted by Mark in Configuration Management, ITSLM, Plain Old Blog on September 21, 2009
One of the things about being a freelance consultant is that you often get to see projects when they are at their worst ebb. After all, one is seldom called in to solve non-problems. The basic pattern of a contract goes like this. Work out what is going on. Work out how it got that [...]
What is configuration management?
Posted by Mark in Configuration Management, Plain Old Blog on September 16, 2009
Configuration management is four things. Identification Change control Status accounting Auditing Nothing more, nothing less. Derived disciplines such as software configuration management, product data management and so on, are always based on these four functions.
Is Configuration Management the right name?
Posted by Mark in Configuration Management, Plain Old Blog, Software Configuration Management on August 11, 2009
Too often we see the name Configuration Management or Software Configuration Management applied to a team when in fact they perform a whole range of functions supporting IT system development. This has lead to a gradual bastardisation of the term Configuration Management to the point that the term has lost its original, focused meaning and [...]
Selling Configuration Management
Posted by Mark in Configuration Management on July 3, 2009
A common question from people wanting to introduce configuration management into their organisation is, “How do I sell configuration management?” By this they mean, how do I convince the decision maker in my organisation to invest in configuration management? The short answer should be, “configuration management should sell itself.” After all, if configuration management offers [...]
