 This year we're
going to party like it's 2009... A decade after the turn of the century, we
have seen new Configuration Management (CM) tools make an appearance on the
market, an expansion from CM to Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) tools,
and CM going global. What might be some
of the latest trends in the industry? As we look to the horizon, what do
we think will be hot in the CM landscape for 2009. The please...
The Predictions: What might we see by way of changes for CM in 2009 IMHO, I see three significant trends or shifts. I believe we will see (or
continue to see) changes in the following areas:
- CM
comes to the forefront of Agile
- Agile
comes to the forefront of CM
- CMDB becomes
a major focus for business
My predictions are based on either, what I see currently happening in the
marketplace and expect to continue or increase, and what I expect to see after
an analysis of the news in the CM field.
Prediction
#1: CM comes to the forefront of Agile
I predict that we
will see a stronger focus on agility in the way we approach and deploy CM.
This is because Agile methods are continuing to increase in adoption. With the need for speed, comes the need for
CM that is both lean, yet well integrated with the Agile processes. CM tools will need to be implemented in a
quick way to support the needs of Agile teams.
We already see this happening with some of the CM tool vendors such as AccuRev, Perforce,
and Subversion and their ability to
get implemented quickly. They are
establishing functionality to more readily adapt to the way that Agile works in
both speed and change.
We see that several
Agile methods call out Configuration Management as one of their practices,
values, and/or success criteria. This
includes Dynamic Systems Development Method (DSDM), Feature
Driven Development (FDD), and Agile
Unified Process (AUP).
Extreme Programming (XP) also has a heavy reliance on CM with the
refactoring and the pair programming practices. This recognizes the value of CM to Agile
software development.
There is, and will continue
to be, more of a focus on integrating CM tools with Agile Project Management
tools to provide for more readily available information on the work and changes
therein as it relates to the stories and requirements in the backlog. Recently, AccuRev established an integration
with Rally Software. Rally manages work at the story level while
AccuRev manages work at a change level.
If everything you do is represented in a story and you link the changes
back to the stories, then you have a closed loop system with the ability to more
accurately know the progress you have made and can quickly identify the changes
per story. Rally also has an integration
connector with Subversion. These types of integrations start driving
toward a tool suite that makes it easier for Agilists to focus on the work at
hand by offering a closed loop between the story and the done-done work,
assuming that the tool suite is adaptable for various needs of an Agile
software development team.
Prediction #2: Agile comes
to the forefront of CM
I also predict in vice-versa manner that we will see more CM
vendors begin to use Agile methods to more readily respond to customer request
in the software development of their own CM product. A good example of a company that has already
made this shift is Borland. Borland has transformed their software
development organization to Agile. In
fact, they have received an InfoWorld
100 Award for their transitioning effort.
While they decided to use Agile to reduce cost and increase efficiency
and quality, they learned that they simultaneously improved customer
relationships because of their ability to respond more quickly to customer
requests.
Prediction
#3: Need for CMDB to drive business results
My final prediction is that we will see more companies look to establish and evolve their configuration management databases (CMDB) for identification and management of all of their assets and processes to better recognize, measure, and manage costs to the business. In addition, we will see more focus on federating the various CMDBs a company may have to provide a much better "big picture" for IT executives looking to lower total cost of ownership (TCO) and better leverage their existing resources. In fact, Denise Dube wrote an article entitled "The IT management ‘hot list' for 2009" that includes the notion of a federated CMDB that identifies cost. She concludes that "By correlating CMDB data with information from asset, procurement and financial systems, IT managers might be able to better pinpoint the costs they expend delivering services to the business."
Other
Considerations for CM
Cost will continue to play a key role in 2009 due to the
economic downturn. However, even with the economic downturn,
there appear to be many CM, Build, and Release engineering positions
available. I see many of these positions
being posted on dice.com, careerbuilder.com, cmcrossroads.com, and
linkedin.com. That is a good sign for
CM professionals in these hard times.
Summary
To summarize, as we look into 2009, I predict we will see
movement in the following areas:
- We
will see CM companies support Agile more effectively and more readily
integrate with Agile Project Management tools.
- We
may see more CM companies adopt Agile methods for software development.
- We
will see an increased need for configuration
management databases (CMDB) including federating CMBD for a better ability
to lower TCO and leverage resources more effectively.
Have a productive 2009!!!
References
Mario
Moreira is a
Columnist for the CM Journal, a writer for the Agile Journal, a Technologist
and Architecture, an Author, and has worked in the SCM field since 1986 and in the Agile field since
1998. He has experience with numerous
SCM technologies and processes and has implemented SCM on over 100 applications/products,
which include establishing global SCM infrastructures. He is a certified ScrumMaster (CSM) in the
Agile arena having implemented Scrum and XP practices. He holds an MA in Mass Communication with an
emphasis on communication technologies.
Mario also brings years of Enterprise Change Agent, Project Management,
Software Quality Assurance, Requirement Management, facilitation, and team
building skills and experience.
Mario is the author of the
SCM book entitled, “Software Configuration Management Implementation Roadmap”. It can be found at www.wiley.com, www.wileyeurope.com, and www.amazon.com (search for Mario
Moreira). It includes step-by-step
guidance for implementing SCM at the organization, application, and project
level with labor-saving templates on CD.
Mario is also in the process of writing a new book entitled
“Adapting Configuration Management for Agile Teams”, another Wiley
project that is tentatively due out in the Fall of 2009. You may reach
Mr. Moreira by email at Mario.Moreira@cmcrossroads.com
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