configuration management

When it comes to IT governance, a key issue is transparency of process and data, all the way up the chain.

Conventional wisdom tells us that standards are a good thing. They are based on best practices and provide guidance to help people do their jobs well. They are so widely accepted that their worth almost goes without saying. As with most things that go without saying, though, standards are not always what they are built up to be. In spite of the plethora of standards in the software industry, we still struggle to achieve successful projects. Even in organizations that are standard-centric, projects end up in challenged (or worse) states.

When will the ultimate software configuration management (CM) standard emerge? Although Joe Farah suspects that it may never happen, he recommends the next standard: one that will be very well defined, highly flexible, and will cater to agile development, automation, CMMI, and more.

CM architecture has the ability to influence the market even more so than vice versa. The complexity of CM and ALM forces vendors to take the lead in market development. But the market will have its influence, and those solutions with strong architectures will be in the best position to serve that market. Last year at this time, I identified where I thought the CM solution space was heading generally. Looking back two and three years ago, I painted a bit of a picture of what defines 3rd and 4th generation CM/ALM solutions. Over the next couple of years, we should expect to see competitive and market pressures push the industry into the 3rd generation.