Archive for category General
Conversations and workshops
Posted by Mark in Body of Knowledge, CMCrossroads, General, ITSLM, Plain Old Blog, Principia Notifications, Tools 'n' Tips on December 10, 2010
I have, for some time, considered the possibilities of the Internet for the real-time exchange of ideas around the lifecycle management subject (config, change, release, problem, and project management, among others). In particular I have been pondering how to start a useful dialogue about the Lifecycle Management Body of Knowledge. I suspect that one of [...]
How do you copy 60m files?
Posted by Mark in CMCrossroads, General, Tools 'n' Tips on September 25, 2010
It is a problem you are bound to face sooner or later in your CM career, How do you copy 60m files?. Okay, you may not need to copy 60 million files, but anyone who has tried to copy millions of files between servers knows that it can be fraught with problems, especially if those [...]
Which SCMÂ tool?
Posted by Mark in Business Cases, CMCrossroads, General, Plain Old Blog, Process on September 8, 2010
This is one of the most common questions asked on the CMCrossroads forums, and perhaps one of the most pointless. The question is variously stated as, “which is the best tool?”, “is tool X better than tool Y?”, or “we are looking for the best tool to X”. All such questions are equally vacuous. The [...]
Analysis Paralysis
Posted by Mark in General, Plain Old Blog on July 27, 2009
This is something to which I have been a victim in the past (and, if I am honest, occasionally I still fall prey to now); analysis paralysis, the inability to do because we feel uncertain about which of several alternative courses of action to take.
Tool selection: beware the ideal case
When selecting tools, for any purpose, beware the ideal case. When a product is demonstrated, online or directly, the presentation has, generally, been carefully worked out in advance to present to tool in the most favourable light possible. The tool will perform optimally and the use case will appear flawless. Sadly, real life is never [...]
Writing documents that people will read
One common complaint, and one to which I have fallen prey in the past, is that “no one reads the documentation”. This seems to be a particular problem for documents recording process and procedure. In this series we will look at how you can write documents that people will actually read. We will look at [...]