Technology professionals get interested in Configuration Management for a variety of reasons. Some choose to specialize in Quality Management and focus on testing, change control and software quality assurance. They often find themselves getting deeply involved with software configuration and release management tools and processes. Most people who visit CM Crossroads are technology professionals who need to know how to use source code management tools effectively and release their code reliably into Development, QA, and Production. An increasing number of our readers are technology managers who need to understand and direct IT governance and compliance with controls such as Sarbanes-Oxley or SAS-70. Most of all, CM is about defining the tasks required in order to get the code out the door correctly each and every time. There also needs to be a clear understanding of the roles, responsibilities and control points that make up the strength of any software development process. Remember that you always have to "test" the process itself for accuracy!
Life Support Systems and CM
Many years ago I was on a job interview for a position supporting the systems used by the New York Stock Exchange. The manager interviewing me asked a very interesting question, "If you were in charge of managing the source code for a medical life support system and your loved was dependent upon that system - would you be completely confident in your CM tools and processes?"
Frankly, I was shocked by the extreme nature of this question. The manager was implying that my loved one would die if I made a mistake. He was also suggesting that there was absolutely no room for error in a release management position that controlled a critical financial system used to manage millions or actually billions of dollars. After thinking about his analogy, I realized that there are in fact life support systems which do need CM tools and processes to manage their upgrade and SOMEBODY is dependant upon those systems.
The day the world economy stopped
A number of years ago, I was still working at the New York Stock Exchange when a critical system failed and the New York Stock Exchange computer systems went down for one hour. This event was reported in most major newspapers throughout the world. Many Wall Street professionals described this event as stopping the world economy for one hour. I was called into a room (after the systems were all back up and running) and asked to examine my release management procedures and ascertain exactly what had gone wrong. I asked for permission to examine the production systems that had been the cause of the outage. Within five minutes I looked at my colleague and said, "I am absolutely certain that some of the code running on this machine is not what I gave them when I released this code." Together we looked a little further and discovered an obvious mistake in some of the shell scripts that resulted in two of my own k-shell scripts, required for the release, being overwritten - AND THE BUG WAS STILL THERE! We reported what we had discovered, the mistake was fixed in 5 minutes and senior management was extremely impressed with our ability to triage and handle the entire incident. (Oh, and we did get our bonuses that year!)
CM is all about getting the release management process right each and every time. In CM Basics, we will get you started with - well - the basics. We hope that you will also join us in reading the CM Journal which goes into a lot more detail. There are many other resources - from product reviews to podcasts - on CM Crossroads that will help you become an expert in CM.
Being a good corporate Citizen
More importantly, you will learn how to develop processes and best practices that will add value to your organization and assist with the entire Application Lifecycle Management. Remember that it is our culture to share what we learn with others. You will find that we have technology professionals from firms which compete directly against each other, sharing best practices and helping each other, because it is just good corporate citizenship. Good process helps keep the systems running which are essential for a healthy world economy, including financial systems, communications, transportation, utilities and of course the military and medical systems. We have over 50,000 readers from all over the world. The global economy today depends upon communication and cooperation that are most often supported by the complex computer systems that we are all developing and supporting. That means that CM has a role in promoting world peace. We're glad that you are joining us at CM Crossroads!
Bob Aiello is the Editor in Chief for the CM Journal and the manager of process improvement for a financial services firm in New York City. He has implemented and supported SCM solutions and release management processes at large financial services firms supporting hundreds of developers, located throughout the U.S, Europe and Asia. Bob is one of the original members of the NYC Software Process Improvement Network (CitySPIN) where he has also served as the chair of the NYC CM SIG. Mr. Aiello has a Masters in Industrial Psychology from NYU and a BS in Computer Science from Hofstra University.
You may reach Mr. Aiello at bob.aiello@cmcrossroads.com
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