Merging Defect Fixes into the Development Codeline No matter what type of software you develop, from internal IT applications to web applications to commercial software packages, fixing bugs following a release is part of the software development lifecycle. Realistically, software maintenance can be a project by itself. However, the process of merging production fixes into the development codeline is an equally significant effort. Unfortunately, the effort required to merge production fixes into the development codeline can be grossly underestimated and improperly staffed even by organizations that practice otherwise good software development. |
Michael Sayko
June 30, 2006 |
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A Practical Approach for Selecting and Adopting an SCM Tool Wanted: A software configuration management (SCM) tool that (a) provides the capabilities necessary to support an organization's software development process, (b) integrates seamlessly with the Integrated Development Environments (IDEs), (c) facilitates the organization's change management process, (d) facilitates the organization's build process, (e) requires only modest training for technical staff , and (f) encourages proper and effective use by technical staff. |
Michael Sayko
June 29, 2006 |
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SCM Predictions from the 1990's: Are We There Yet (2006)? Making predictions is fraught with danger and the last thing forecasters need is somebody to actually compare their predictions with reality. In SCM there were key attempts to project the future of the discipline and the tools that support it. As a dozen years have elapsed since these predictions were made, it is time to assess their accuracy and determine where SCM has been and where it still needs to go. |
Louis Taborda
June 29, 2006 |
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Determine Your Team's SCM Needs Before Automating! At many organizations, configuration management (CM) activities are chaotic. Then at some point and perhaps out of utter frustration, some genius gets the bright idea to "automate"—thinking that this is going to solve their dilemma, so the organization focuses on automating their chaos. |
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Learn from your Vendor: Solution Selling If your daughter ever comes home with a friendly, outgoing guy named Norbert, shoot first and ask questions later.
Some years ago, a salesman named Norbert at the SCM vendor where I worked got a call in late December from a prospect that had decided to buy from a different vendor. He asked to keep an appointment he had made for a wrapping up session. He went to the meeting with a sales proposal in hand, and after reengineering the vision of the customer, actually left with a sales agreement. Now that's a short sales cycle! |
Austin Hastings
June 29, 2006 |
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Approaching the Implementation of CM When landing an airplane, the approach is considered quite important. If the approach vector is off even by 1%, the plane may careen off the other end of the runway. Also, if the approach is incorrect, effort such as fuel and time is unnecessarily expended and wasted, especially if circling must occur. |
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Applying Agile SCM to Databases Many applications have database components, and these components evolve in the same environment as your code and other development artifacts. This article explores some of the issues around applying version management to database development in an agile environment. The article raises more questions than it answers, and we hope that it starts a dialogue about this important, yet often neglected topic. |
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Software Development : How Good It Can Be This article is dedicated to telling you how good developing software can be. Austin Hastings describes many software development practices working together, some of which you don't have. If you like an idea you see here, implement it. After your first implementation steps, you can return here to find yet another idea to implement. |
Austin Hastings
June 29, 2006 |
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Strategic Weakness: SCM Implementation Risks The best way to make a project succeed is to communicate effectively. When all levels of the project share the goals, vision, constraints, and plan, everyone on the team can pull as hard and as creatively as possible in the right direction. Failing to share the goals and vision underlying a software configuration management (SCM) implementation can cause it to fail. |
Austin Hastings
June 29, 2006 |
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Implementation Methodologies This month's theme, "Implementation Methodologies", focuses on many different opinions and viewpoints. During the initial discussions among the Crossroads News writers and our editor, Patrick Egan, there was both confusion and clarification. The confusion was largely semantic, and the clarifications, well they came from many authors' perspectives. In the end, our editor said he wanted to see papers that, "...differentiate between our SCM implementation at the organization level, application level, and project level -(aka, the "Target Level/Audience Method"), and implementation approach." He also indicated that he was interested in subjects that ranged in variety from analysis, to tool selection, to design, to installation, to testing, to training and deployment". I liked that primarily because this directive gives rise to a wide range of perspectives of what implementation methodology means to the practitioners of the software engineering community. Therefore, here is my own viewpoint of what Implementation Methodologies mean to me. |
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