configuration management
Articles
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Agile SCM: Martial Arts Principles The authors look at software configuration principles in terms of how they might relate to the martial arts. They discuss ways to learn new skill and master them, how to handle conflict, energy, efficiency, and timing. |
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Six Ways to Build Reliable Applications I came across a paper the other day in Better Software titled, "Code Improvement" by Jeff Grover and Zhon Johansen. It's a short, but good article focusing on developing well-designed code. My favorite point was "Start/Finish each task by refactoring". In other words, stop the entropy of expanding your software solution by ensuring that the code is as minimal as necessary to meet the requirements. There are parallels in the CM world that ultimately lead to a reliable CM process and tool support capability. In this article, I'll venture where I don't usually go: inside our own development environment to bring out a few points that may apply equally to general development and to a CM environment. |
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The Pros and Cons of Four Kinds of Code Reviews The authors explore the pros and cons of four other common styles of code reviews—over-the-shoulder, email pass-around, pair programming, and tool-assisted reviews—and see which ones is the most promising candidate for practical peer code reviews. |
Jason Cohen
October 2, 2006 |
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Does Senior Management Really Care About Quality? "Sometimes," Bob mused, "It seems like senior management doesn't care about the quality of the systems we build. I wonder if they care about quality at all?"
"Oh, there is no question in my mind!" Sue assured him. "I know that they don't care. All they care about it hitting a schedule. They couldn't care less about how well the software works!"
Meanwhile, in the boardroom: "What's wrong with your people?" the COO barked at the CIO. "They can never seem to deliver a system the works right. Between the bugs that have to be fixed and the difficulty that people have with figuring out how to use it, I wonder if we might be better off using pencil and paper!" |
Alan S. Koch
September 20, 2006 |
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Seamless Integrated Tops Wishlist for CM/ALM Tool Suites There are a lot of CM/ALM solutions out there - so where are we headed? In my opinion, the future of CM/ALM will be defined by the level of tool suite integration, more than by any other factor in the 3rd and 4th Generations of tools. And basic "integration" will not cut it. Putting tools together into a single package with some glue and triggers to help the tools interact is helpful, but will fall short of market demand. "seamless integration" will be a requirement. No advance is more important to the next generation of CM tools. What about cost? What about ease-of-use? How about traceability? The answer is simple: first seamless integration, and the rest will follow. If you haven't seen a seamlessly integrated tool suite, you may not fully grasp this statement. But seamlessly integrated tools are the ones that will be dominant in the future. Let's look at why. |
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Lightweight Code Reviews A Lightweight Alternative to Inspections In this article, we explore why almost no one does "proper" inspections and set up the case for lightweight peer code review. Try it. You'll like it! |
Jason Cohen
September 5, 2006 |
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Do Your CM/ALM Tools Help Secure Your Development Assets? You're part of a very successful growing software company. As you approach the office one morning, fire trucks out front indicate that this is not business as usual. Fortunately, you have nightly off-site back-ups. Unfortunately, you'll need equipment, software, back-up recovery operations, and perhaps things can be back to normal in a few days with limited data loss. Or maybe you've noticed data problems creeping into your development repository ever since the recent round of layoffs. Or a hacker. Maybe there was a critical disk crash. Or maybe a new software release has introduced data inconsistency. There are many ways your development assets can be compromised. So you really need many avenues to secure them. Your CM and/or ALM suites are part of your development backbone - they must be up to the task of getting you back on your feet, the same day. |
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From Peer Review to Pair Programming There is always talk about improving application quality. In many instances, a large quality program gets initiated that either takes a lot of resources and time or introduces change that is too challenging for the organization (or project team) to handle. It is usually better to start on a smaller scale. Focusing on improving application quality in the programming phase, a couple of suggests are: 1) initiate peer reviews (e.g., code reviews) and/or 2) initiate pair programming. While peer review is more widely known and used in the software development industry, pair programming offers more problem solving possibilities. Both are known to reduce defects and improve quality. The key is to introduce a small initiative like peer review or pair programming ensuring you are building the practice for success. |
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The Case for Peer Review The $1 billion bug and why no one talks about peer code review. It was only supposed to take an hour. The bad news was that we had a stack of customer complaints. The latest release had a nasty bug that slipped through QA. The good news was that some of those complaints included descriptions of the problem - an unexpected error dialog box - and one report had an attached log file. We just had to reproduce the problem using the log and add this case to the unit tests. Turn around a quick release from the stable branch and we're golden. |
Jason Cohen
August 1, 2006 |
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Principles of Agile Version Control: From Object-oriented Design to Project-oriented Branching In this article, the authors explore translation of object-oriented design principles to codelines, branching, and promotion. In addition, they expand on the concept of moving from task-based development (TBD) to project-oriented branching (POB). |
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