configuration management

How do companies face the challenge of setting up their infrastructure when they've just started agile development? One option is to move your infrastructure to the cloud. In this article, we help you decide what's the best fit for your team and project by addressing this issue head on.

Configuration management (CM) provides organizations with a level of control over the changes that occur in the engineering space.  It can help protect the valuable code assets of the revenue generating products within the organization.  CM provides the capability for products to manage the pieces therein that change at different rates, exposes the changes that are occurring, and establishes knowledge of the baseline of the product which then improves integrity and minimizes product regression.  In addition, CM not only assesses the impact of change, but assists in problem resolution.   While the value of CM is typically understood within engineering organizations, it is important to apply CM investment wisely. 

Most professionals in the software development industry recognize the need for Configuration Management (CM).  CM has been around long enough for people to have experienced problems when CM was either not in place or when the level of CM was insufficient for the needs of the work.  CM values of identification, control, audit, and report are meant to ensure integrity of the product under development.  These days, almost everyone has, at least, version control practices which include a version control tool and a simple checkout/checkin process.  However, as with any engineering discipline, the level of the CM implementation (since CM is much more than just version control) will depend greatly on the culture along with the methods and governance that exist within the company.

Joe Farah details the events that will help shape the coming year of configuration management (CM) and application lifecycle management (ALM). The CM and ALM industry will prosper as companies look at how they can reduce costs.