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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Build and Deploying Applications
Volume 8 - Number 8 - July 2010
 Building and deploying applications have always been the meat and potatoes of Configuration Management. An effective build process will help boost your team's productivity and quality. Automating the deployment process is critical to this effort and we have focused on this before with articles, webcasts and podcasts. You need to take a close look at your own build and deploy processes and consider how to make them better. At CMC Media, we are taking a close look at how we make CM Crossroads a better resource for you as well. In coming months, you will notice that we are shifting our calendar a bit and loading it with more webcasts, podcasts and articles all on a common theme that will help you improve your Configuration Management practices including source code management, build, release management, and automated deployment. As always you should continue to contact me directly to give your input on how we can help you achieve excellence in all things CM!
Mike Sayko takes the lead this month with the "Advantages of a Pipelined Approach for Build and Deployment Automation." Brad Appleton, Robert Cowham and Steve Berczuk give us "Breaking News: Build Still Important, but Deployment is King" and Joe Farah gives us the "Next Generation of Build Essentials." Mario Moreira helps us set up metrics related to the build and more in his article on" Building a Meaningful Metric Mousetrap." I am sure that you will enjoy Alan Koch's "Road to Quality" where he considers the build in his definition of when done is done.
Ben Weatherall tells us about finding meaning in your Build and Deploy process while Mayank Gupta presents continuous integration and enterprise build automation. Don't forget to read my article on Build and Deployment essentials and this month we finish up with an article from PureCM's Mike Shepherd on Agile ALM. You can expect to see a lot more articles on Agile ALM in upcoming issues and you should certainly be contacting me to discuss sharing your own best practices as well!
Bob Aiello
Editor in Chief
CM Crossroads
raiello@acm.org
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The Advantages of a Pipelined Approach for Build and Deployment Automation
by Michael Sayko
Automation is required to build and deploy software applications consistently. Automation is necessary to build and deploy software applications rapidly. While build and deployment automation is essential for modern software development, not all approaches to automation produce the same results. Without proper design, build and deployment automation can become complex to understand and difficult to maintain.
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CM: THE NEXT GENERATION of Build Essentials
by Joe Farah
CM allows us to repeatably build product that can be delivered to the customer. In the hardware world, the "build" process is called "manufacturing" and the deployment is known as "shipping and installation". In the software world, our manufacturing is done through a Build process, and our deployment is often automated, perhaps over the internet. However, unlike for hardware development, software teams continually build and re-build the entire software product continually during development and can deploy these builds locally for verification. So the build process is not just a manufacturing process, but a development process as well.
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Building a Meaningful Metric Mousetrap
by Mario Moreira
Metrics provide data points that can both benefit and endanger and organization. Metrics can be used positively to build a better organization and can be used negatively to punish organizations and people therein. Many times, those that use the metrics negatively do it purposefully, but other times, they are not aware of the way they are using them. This is why it is important to have a metrics culture that apply metrics in a positive manner, provides an understanding of the metric, and then actually utilize metrics to manage an organization.
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The Definition of "Done"
by Alan Koch
"I thought you said you were done with the Cranfragle last week!" Sue demanded. "I just talked with Alan and he said that you haven't even started on the GreenFlop."
"Yes", Joe answered, "I'll be starting on that tomorrowies that have to do with the Cranfragle?"
Sue's jaw dropped. "How can you ask that? You're not done until the GreenFlop is done! " What does it mean when a member of your team says that something is "done"? Taking the time to define this critical term does much more than avoid disagreements. It can also save critical project time and avoid embarrassing oversights.
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Finding meaning in your Build and Deploy Process
by Ben Weatherall
This month's topic, Build and Deployment Management, fits in with several of the previous topics (specifically Minimizing the Requirements GIGO Factor, CM Tool Chains & Their Management and Release Management) to cover most of the CM Life Cycle stages. Once again, let's define some terms:
Build - The process of converting some precursor artifacts (source) into some desired output (testable component or product). Classically, this is thought of as "compiling," but it also includes such esoteric things as linking, packaging (think .jar, .cab and .tar files). A "build" is the end result of this process. Think of building as starting from base ingredients and ending up with a pie.
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Continuous Integration and Enterprise Build Automation
by Mayank Gupta
How often have you or one of your teammates checked the source code into the code library which then instantly triggered an automated build? How many times did this instant build succeed? Do you have an automated build and release system that ensures your software is built in the same way each and every time? Are deployments to staging environments entirely automated and executed with a single click? While reviewing a defect in a production release, are you able to backtrack through the source code changes and identify the root cause of failure? If the last good checkin happened a few days ago, identification of this root cause of failure would become even more difficult. Seasoned CM practitioners advise that you perform a daily build to avoid such integration issues. What an irony it is that only a few projects take advantage of this simple, yet powerful technique known as Continuous Integration (CI).
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Behaviorally Speaking – Build and Deployment Essentials
by Bob Aiello
Build and Deployment are two of the most essential functions that are performed by the configuration management guru. In some ways, they represent the beginning and the end of the Release Management LifeCycle. It's important to understand all of the steps involved with creating an effective configuration and release management process. When done well, good CM adds value and I have personally seen situations where these practices saved the project, and actually the organization itself. Read on if you have to develop an effective Build and Deployment solution complete with all of the other steps that are required, as well.
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Agile ALM – Opposites Attract
by Mike Shepherd
Agile and ALM are two terms that you don’t often see side-by-side. To most developers, agile means team interaction, customer collaboration, dynamism, and responsiveness to change.
In contrast, ALM seems to imply the opposite of agile, with echoes of rigid procedures, inflexibility and top-down process control. But are the agile and ALM approaches as contradictory as they first appear to be?
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