Version Control

Articles

Why Software Configuration Management is Essential for a Small Business

Exactly how big should an organization be before CM must take an active part in the development team? The answer is simple: CM, when properly adopted, gives an advantage to the small business that is necessary for it to compete. It doesn't really matter the size your company, you still have to successfully develop, build, distribute, and track your software.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
Value of Configuration Management by Agile Professionals

Mario Moreira surveyed recently surveyed agile professionals to find out just how valuable CM processes and tools are to them. While there was a noticeable difference in opinion between different responder age groups, the overall response was overwhelmingly positive in CM's favor.

Mario  Moreira's picture Mario Moreira
Experience Report: Engineering Change in a Large Organization

It's so easy to get comfortable in your everyday surroundings, but you should know by now that change is often right around the corner. In a larger sized organization, change can be difficult to implement with minimal disruptions, but it can be done, and to the benefit of everyone.

Anonymous
Overcome Resistance to Change for Success as a CM Leader

Some people just don't wanna change...but change is essential. Change is essential. Insanity has often been defined as doing the same thing over and over again and yet expecting the results to be different. If approaching a problem in a particular way is not working, then you need to consider changing how you're doing things. Although Greek philosophers were well aware that change is a permanent characteristic of the universe, it is certainly true that recent generations have seen the most rapid transformations in the shortest time spans. The reality is that only the most adaptive individuals can be successful leaders in the world as we know it today.

Leslie  Sachs's picture Leslie Sachs
Motivate Your Colleagues While Implementing Standards and Frameworks

Implementing standards and frameworks involves organizing complicated information in order to help technology professionals produce work that is consistent and, by definition, complies with the standard or framework. These same technical wizards often thrive on their individual creative processes. But there are ways to empower and motivate your colleagues while still implementing industry standards and frameworks. This article discusses some of the personality and teamwork issues that you need to consider in this effort.

Leslie  Sachs's picture Leslie Sachs
New Branching Standards for Configuration Management

Joe Farah explores a potential standard for next generation branching. It not only has advanced capabilities and processes, but can also significantly reduce CM complexity and increase CM automation.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
How Does Software Development Fit in with ITIL's Configuration Management Database?

How does software development fit with your ITIL CMDB? ITIL® has long been recognized as the de facto industry standard for IT service management and the adoption of ITIL has been growing rapidly across the world. IT Service Management (ITSM) derives enormous benefits from a best practice approach. Change management and configuration management are core practices at the heart of ITIL and ISO/IEC 20000, the auditing standard that is aligned with ITIL.

The Rationale for Standards

Ben Weatherall gives the rationale for standards from a non-traditional viewpoint, Know what you are trying to solve by first determining the root problems and your culture, and then try to either find a standard that matches or one that can be modified to fit your situation. Just make sure that if you follow a standard, you truly follow it and that if you modify a standard that you document where you vary from it.

Ben Weatherall's picture Ben Weatherall
Change Management is not Change Control

A key part of planning configuration management for our projects is determining how we will manage change. After all, change happens and any good configuration manager is concerned with how it is managed. Unfortunately, more often than not, our processes focus more on controlling change than on managing it. That is, we put a lot of effort into trying to keep change from happening and relatively less effort into ensuring that when (not if, but when) change happens, we manage it effectively.

Alan S. Koch
Avoiding Disaster: Get Your Team to Plan for Configuration Management

Poor planning is the root cause of many problems. Planning for configuration management can significantly impact your organization's productivity and effectiveness. Many teams live in a constant treadmill of responding to emergencies that could have easily been avoided with a little bit of planning. Some people just don't have the ability or demeanor to create an adequate plan, while others don't even want to. In technology, many professionals excel at responding to crisis after crisis and become known for their skills in "saving the day." At the other end of the spectrum are professionals who plan and plan but cannot find the right balance between planning and action. Fixating on creating a plan is just as deadly as having no plan at all. Technology managers need to be able to recognize the personality traits that make for good planners in their team and provide leadership to get the job done in an effective way.

Leslie  Sachs's picture Leslie Sachs

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