Each month the CM Journal provides original content articles and regular columns from industry thought leaders and software providers on a wide variety of configuration management and application lifecycle management topics.
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Evaluating and Selecting Right Tools
Volume 7 - Number 6 - June 2009
 This month's CM Crossroads issue covers the often daunting task of Evaluating and Selecting the Right Tools. Fortunately, there are indeed many good tools on the market to support Configuration Management. There are also some pretty bad clunkers out there and you don't want to be in the position of recommending a tool that later becomes a symbol for bad decisions! Fortunately, your CM Crossroads colleagues have the guidance, based upon practical experience, to help you be successful with your Tools Evaluation and Selection Process. Matthew Johnson gets us started down the path with his article on Choosing the Right Tool and Alan Koch tells us to consider People, Process and Tools in our selection effort. Sky Basu, CTO of Kovair, shares his own Process Tool Selection Guidelines and Joe Farah has the Next Generation in Evaluating and Selecting CM/ALM Tools.
In Personality Matters, Leslie Sachs tells us how to tame some of the Wild personalities you may encounter in your tools selection process and Chayim Kirshen explains how to Promote Tools Within an Organization. Our zany Ben Weatherall has some sage advice on SCM Assessment and Tal Niznani has some information on Applying Software Configuration Management Methodology to Database Development. I couldn’t resist looking back at Steven Easterbrook’s Evaluating and Selecting CM Tools and of course, my buddy Mario Moreira’s discussion on CM Tools. In Behaviorally Speaking, I recounted some of my own experiences in tools selection and please don’t forget to drop me a line and share your experiences, challenges and questions regarding tools selection. This is a great issue and we’re delighted that you are joining us for our deep dive into Tools Evaluation and Selection!!!
Bob Aiello
Editor in Chief
CM Crossroads
raiello@acm.org
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Don't be a Fool, Choose the Right Tool
by Matthew Johnson
Tools can be a powerful productivity enhancer in any software development organization, but they can also be a swirling vortex of wasted time and money. Choosing the right tool along with ensuring its acceptance into the project team can seem like a daunting task, but careful planning and involving the right people creates a win-win for you and the entire organization (i.e., think corner office with windows, reserved parking, traveling business class... OK, stop laughing).
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People, Processes and Tools
by Alan S. Koch
Every project is dependent upon people, processes and tools. They are how the work gets done. But these three essential elements are not equal. Each has its own strengths and weaknesses, and provides a different value to our projects. This three-part series explores the relative value of people, of process, and of tools.
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Process Tool Selection Guidelines
by Sky Basu
This article discusses Process tools for Software Development and IT Management and the major functionalities one should look for in such tools. There are not many tools which can be categorized as pure play software development process management tools. Most of the process tools are included as part of the development and management point tools.
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CM: THE NEXT GENERATION - Evaluating and Selecting CM/ALM Tools
by Joe Farah
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.
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Personality Matters – Taming the Wild Tools Selection Process
by Leslie Sachs
Tools selection should really be the most objective and straight forward task that any technology professional could be asked to work on. After all, selecting a hammer (saw or screwdriver) is always a basic task that depends upon objective criteria such as the size of the nail that you are pounding into a wall. In technology, tools selection involves a lot more group dynamics than you might expect and it is very possible that personality issues (within the team evaluating the tools) could cause you to make some costly mistakes.
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Promoting Tools Within an Organization
by Chayim Kirshen
As SCM professionals, we want to not only work on software construction and release engineering; we want to help software organizations iterate, release, and work as efficiently as possible. A true SCM professional will not only work on Build and Release Engineering, but also try to remove all roadblocks to software development and software engineering.
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SCM Assessment
by Ben Weatherall
In past articles and forum threads I have discussed how "pain" drives tool changes and how to go about identifying and evaluating potential tool additions/replacements. This month, I want to cover how to assess your existing tools and processes to determine where you really need to focus.
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Applying Software Configuration Management Methodology to Database Development
by Tal Nizani
In the beginning, there was Chaos... In the early days of software development, everyone did their own thing. Hardware was scarce and software projects were small. But soon, when multi-programmer projects became common, configuration- and change-control problems started rearing their ugly heads. When two programmers tried to edit the same source-code file, the inevitable happened and changes were over-written or lost. Initially, manual (human-based) change-control processes were instituted with varying degrees of success and varying degrees of overhead.
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Evaluating and Selecting CM Tools - A Perspective
by Steven Easterbrook
Why Automated tools?
Automated tools are essential for effective and efficient configuration management. Tools can automate many aspects of the change management process and deliver a real time platform for managing baseline information. Tools can also provide reports and metrics that are necessary for continuous improvement efforts. Many tools also provide document control and other essential functionality.
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What is a CM Tool?
by Mario Moreira
Does the title of this article sound silly? I mean, doesn’t everyone know what a Configuration Management (CM) tool is? Isn’t a Configuration Management CM tool something that provides version control functionality? Well, the short answer is yes but only in its most simplistic form. CM as a discipline goes well beyond simple version control. It is important to look beyond what vendors define as classic CM tools and consider CM in terms of the full practice and processes they offer.
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Behaviorally Speaking - Evaluating and Selecting a CM Tool
by Bob Aiello
Evaluating and Selecting any technology tool is truly dropping me off at a combination candy/toy store with my beloved grandfather nearby, who never seemed to tire of delighting me with his holiday presents. I love removing the shrink wrap (especially when there are some nice thick admin manuals for me to devour). All fun aside, selecting the right CM tool could make the difference between your project being a success or failure. It's also important to note that you might pick the perfect tool and still have a failed project for any number of reasons.
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