It was 1978 when I first introduced change packages (a.k.a. updates) as the central feature of an in-house CM system. It's still in use today supporting a 40 million LOC project. It was 1982 when I introduced the concept of streams to rationalize branching along the product roadmap. Little did I know that a quarter century later, these concepts would just be starting to move to the forefront.

In keeping with the season, I'll try to keep this month's article on the Light side (both Chanukah and Christmas are Festivals of Light). Not easy to do when talking about metrics. If you're serious about attaining SEI CMM Level 5 certification, or about improving your processes in an effective manner, metrics are critical. Changing processes based on gut feel, or even based on some other organization's best practices can lead you backwards. Metrics not only permit you to detect this, but give you the basic data you need to improve your processes.

The term “continuous integration” is getting a bit of attention these days. It refers to the process of integrating often (or immediately) to reduce integration effort, complexity, and pain.It allows for others make changes more readily. While the term “continuous” is catchy, it is not accurate in what the concept implies. In context to integration, it implies a process without interruption.

Project perspective or product perspective - what's the best way to look at configuration management. Well... both. We'll journey through both sides, giving this author's perspective of each, and showing how changes form the crossroads between project CM and product CM. Right off the bat, we'll need to agree on some definitions.