Version Control

Mario Moreira conducted a study of CM professionals to find out what similarities and differences could be found between them. He then compared those results with what he learned from a similar study he conducted four years prior, to see what has changed, and what's stayed the same.

Many authorities have undertaken to lay out the one right way to engineer system requirements. Although there are similarities among them, what is most striking is the diversity in approaches and, in some cases, conflicting philosophies. What are we to make of these dueling authorities and their competing guidelines?

When we deliver software products, we need to be able to tell our customers what they're getting. Not only product documentation, but specifically, every time we deliver a new release we need to relay what problems were fixed and what new features were added. If the software is subject to periodic audits, we need to tell them even more, especially the abiltiy to trace a requirement or change request to what was changed.

By reworking lean principles for the branching and merging arena, we're able to create automated builds and unit tests to increase effectiveness and improve quality in software configuration management. Individual developers and teams alike can benefit from this process-improving strategy.