PVCS Dimensions - http://www.serena.com

Establish Powerful Change Management Across Your Enterprise

PVCS Dimensions provides, in a single change management framework, comprehensive process control, versioning, baseline management, issue management, release management, build management and workflow management.

Dimensions is an enterprise software configuration management (SCM) solution made unique with its ability to manage and enforce entire processes and work roles, as well as the digital assets involved. Nor is Dimensions limited to SCM. It is the only software system certified by the Institute of Change Management to support business processes under the CMII standard.

Dimensions accommodates teams of all sizes, from small and nimble, to the entire globally distributed enterprise. It can be rapidly implemented, ensuring the protection and management of all enterprise assets. Team members are coordinated and communicating at every step, as they rapidly build reliable systems.

With process control that can be easily customized to fit agile or traditional methodologies, or perhaps modeled on the specific needs of your own organization, Dimensions simplifies change management across multiple sites in your enterprise.

-- PatrickEgan? - 29 Dec 2002

Actually, Dimensions takes months to set up, even for modest projects of 30 people. We have been using it for 6 months and we still have several Merant consultants on board fixing / configuring things on a daily basis.

It doesn't manage change, so much as inhibit change, and therefore is a poor choice for agile / rapid developement of J2EE? projects. It is all wrapped up in rules, roles, permissions making it a frustrating, tedious and taxing experience for all but the most patient.

It is entirely unforgiving. A simple mistake can take hours to back out, if it can be backed out at all, and given the complexity of the product, mistakes occur on a daily basis.

As for globally distributed enterprise solutions, forget it. It has taken months to attempt to get Merant's replication strategy to work, and that's just for one project across 2 sites. Needless to say, it doesn't yet. Merant's replication strategy does not allow developers to make changes to globally distributed projects if their site was not the originator of item to be changed. Our developers end up FTPing sources between sites, it is faster and more reliable and nothing gets lost.

And as for simplicity? One of the most complicated products I've seen in 30 years in the business. So complicated in fact that a developer cannot simply use one client to do his work, but must use both the PC-Windows client, and the Web client at the same time, coordinating efforts between them.

No support for Ant, or for many of the fine Java IDEs for for that matter. No support for continuous integration.

Why would anyone consider using Dimensions today? I can't imagine. Given that it's been around since 1992, it may have been designed for an earlier generation of developers.

-- DanlThompson? - 17 Apr 2004