This important concept of CM is that it manages components, their state and characteristics over time, as well as their relationship to other elements in the entire configuration. In the world of Software Configuration Management (SCM) we see analogous concepts to those in the physical world; we have to bring together many software components to form a software product, we need to understand the interrelationships of those components, their state over the course of a software project, and characteristics over time. Forms are a basic way to manage software configurations.

This paper provides a review of the projects that use business rules engine (BRE) implementation. The article emphasizes the importance of the rules taxonomy definition and concludes with a discussion about the estimate approach for this type of project.

We may be creatures of habit—adhering to and promoting processes we know well—but we also habitually look to other work environments that appear capable of nurturing our ideas once an old environment becomes depleted. Ed Weller believes that searching for greener pastures is unnecessary. You just need to learn how to cultivate your managers in order to create an environment that will harbor your ideas. Ed explains why you'll end up grazing fruitlessly if you can't plant your ideas with management.

Service and a good variety of features are key in developing relationships with the customer. We always want to satisfy our customers. But if we sometimes exceed their expectations, overly satisfied customers will more than likely spread the news about our service or product--we've added whipped cream, and maybe even a cherry, on top of their ice cream. In this week's column, Mike Cohn explains how he measures customer satisfaction using Kano analysis, which categorizes the features customers look for into baseline, linear, and exciter features. Doing so will help us identify which features will delight our end users, and help us surpass the level of simple satisfaction.