Building a CM system using Atlassian
Posted by Mark in Build Management, Change Management, CMCrossroads, Configuration Management, Plain Old Blog, Reviews, Software Configuration Management on May 7, 2011
I’m usually somewhat reluctant to make recommendations about specific tools, but every now and then something impresses me so much I feel I should at least draw attention to it. In the course of helping a client look for tools to support their development process I recalled that a couple of years ago I looked [...]
Truth spoken in jest
Posted by Mark in CMCrossroads, Plain Old Blog on April 27, 2011
A situation similar to many I’ve encountered.
Distracted. Despondent.
Posted by Mark in Plain Old Blog on April 14, 2011
I have recently been distracted by a new ‘hobby’, investing (I scare quote hobby because, although it’s great fun, interesting, and not my main job, it also involves real money—and significantly MY real money—so I take it perhaps slightly more seriously than a casual hobby). Anyway, I decided to blog about investing; what I learned, the [...]
Running ANT within ANT under a different JVM
Posted by Mark in ANT, Plain Old Blog, Tools 'n' Tips on March 24, 2011
Problem You have set up a continuous integration build using CruiseControl. The build loop initiates your build using an ANT script mainBuild.xml. This mainBuild.xml needs to invoke several other build files, but (and here’s the catch) you want the sub-builds to use a different JDK. Using the ant task will invoke the sub-build using the [...]
Don’t share your code!
Posted by Mark in Plain Old Blog on March 23, 2011
Bet that got your attention. And I’m serious. In this post I am going to tell you why sharing code is a bad idea. I am also going to tell you that you should share the functionality of your code. That is an excellent idea. What I mean when I say ‘don’t share your code’ [...]
Contingent Configuration Management
Posted by Mark in CMCrossroads, Configuration Management on March 21, 2011
We find, among all the terminology in the configuration management arena, many terms being added to the basic CM acronym; Agile CM, Product CM, Software CM, Traditional/Classic CM, and so on. Well, I’d like to offer my own—Contingent CM. The problem with many of the other terms is their absolutism; ‘this is the right way’, [...]
Configuration management and licensing in the Internet age
Posted by Mark in Plain Old Blog on March 11, 2011
In writing it is important to maintain a careful record of your citations. It can be tough, especially as you dash around the Internet gathering information, to keep track of where you get each idea or piece of text. It is, however, vital that you do so in order to properly cite your sources, giving [...]
What problem does it solve?
Posted by Mark in CMCrossroads, Tools 'n' Tips on March 8, 2011
This simple question will save you hours of pain. Whenever you are looking at a new methodology or technology. Whenever you are designing a new process or procedure. Ask yourself, ‘what problem does it solve?’. If you can’t come up with a clear well defined answer then the chances are you should not proceed with [...]
Teaching and learning configuration management—some observations
Posted by Mark in Plain Old Blog on March 3, 2011
One of the frustrations I have with configuration management training and literature is the focus on facts. Too often training courses, books, and websites lay out the facts of configuration management. The dry details about what configuration management ‘should be’. Worse still, people often want a rote solution; ‘Teach me the steps for X’. This [...]
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 [...]
