Archive for category Version Control
CM discussion group
Posted by Mark in Body of Knowledge, Configuration Management, ITSLM, Parallel Development Principles, Plain Old Blog, Software Configuration Management, Version Control on February 17, 2011
At the end of last year I ran an experimental ‘live discussion’ under the banner ‘The Watercooler’. This was intended to help spark conversation with the hope of encouraging people of all abilities to contribute to the body of knowledge wiki. Given the modest success of that experimental session, I have planned a series of [...]
When is a change a change?
Posted by Mark in Build Management, Change Management, Configuration Management, Plain Old Blog, Software Configuration Management, Version Control on June 12, 2010
A change can be viewed in two ways; conceptually or literally. What I mean by this distinction is that when I say the requested change is to “correct spelling mistakes in the poem” I am specifying conceptually what the change is to achieve (and after the fact, what the change achieved). On the other hand [...]
Items have history
Posted by Mark in CMCrossroads, Configuration Management, Plain Old Blog, SCM Tool, Software Configuration Management, Version Control on March 17, 2010
As those of you who have been following this blog for any time will know I am currently looking in some detail at parallel development, specifically how it can be managed safely by non-expert version managers. I have used parallel development with much success on many projects but codifying my knowledge into a tool is [...]
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 [...]
Basic Branching
Posted by Mark in Version Control on June 23, 2009
This article lays the foundation for a series on branching and the development management techniques it enables. A simple linear development progresses by building one version on another. So, version one is updated to produce version two, version two is changed to make version three, and so on. This form of version progression is well [...]
