configuration management

Conference Presentations

When Test Drives the Development Bus

Once development reaches "code complete," the testing team takes over and drives the project to an acceptable quality level and stability. This is accomplished by weekly build cycles or dress rehearsals. The software is graded based on found, fixed, and outstanding errors. Development strives to increase the grades in each build--improving the quality and stability of the software. Learn how to use this "dress rehearsal" process to build team morale, develop ownership by the entire development team, and ensure success on opening night.

Cindy Necaise, MICROS Systems, Inc.
Thinking About People, Process, and Product: A Principle that Works at Work

All projects involve the three P's: people, process, and product. People includes everyone who influences the project. Process is the steps taken to produce and maintain software. Product is the final outcome of the project. To keep these three in harmony, you must observe who is trying to do what to deliver what. Usually, two of the three P's are mandated, and the third one is chosen appropriately. Although this is common sense, it is not common practice. Dwayne Phillips discusses the issues and challenges that affect us all on every project. Learn about the ideas and questions to consider to help you work through these issues.

Dwayne Phillips, U.S. Department of Defense
Three Numbers to Measure Project Performance

We present a method which produces at any time during the execution of a big software
development project a reliable prediction of the total duration and of the total cost to expect
at project completion. The basic idea presented in our paper is to correlate cumulative cost consumed to current
completion reached, and to learn out of this about the future of the project. Prerequisites
are a cost consumption plan and a deliverables completion plan. The approach is
presented both theoretically and on hand of a real life case. Special attention is paid to
project management techniques related to the method.

Thomas Liedtke and Peter Paetzold, Alcatel
From Zero to 100: Project Metrics in an Investment Bank

Metrics collection, interpretation, and data quality always present a challenge to organizations. In the midst of an ever-increasing organization such as Goldman Sachs, the need for comprehensive metrics has become a top priority. Learn how one company successfully implemented a measurement initiative from ground zero using project management discipline, completion dates, scope definition, and a lifecycle approach-resulting in expanded coverage, more sophisticated usage of data, and support of the management and quality teams.

Barry Young and Arun Banerjee, Goldman Sachs and Co.
Predicting Software Errors and Defects

This paper introduces a fault model that predicts the number of errors and defects throughout the development cycle. Project managers can use this information to quantitatively determine if the development process is in control, may be going out of control, or is clearly out of control. This model is able to adjust estimates based on the most current data available.

Mark Criscione, Motorola
Deploying Software Configuration Management-A Case History

Bill Buie presents a picture of what software configuration management looks like--and what it took to get there--in a real-life organization. Learn how one company built an infrastructure to support configuration management, including the tools and processes required. Lessons learned in deployment will be discussed, including identifying the right champions, incremental deployment, and the growth opportunity in tools.

Bill Buie, Pliant Systems, Inc.
Managing Concurrent Software Releases in Development and Test

There is an ever-growing need to provide complex software products to customers on a short development schedule. Additionally, the customers need to be able to count on release dates for planning purposes. Instead of investing in an entirely new tool set that solves the configuration management issues associated with supporting concurrent development and support, existing tools can be used. This paper focuses on how to adapt and in some cases enhance an existing set of well-known tools to enable Lucent to excel in the market place. To this end, this project chose to implement the Fixed Interval Feature Delivery (FIFD) model of software development.

David Shinberg, Lucent Technologies
Enterprise-Wide Change and Configuration Management

Multi-tier applications are increasingly strategic for many organizations, but manually coordinating the movement of disparate components-developed and deployed on multiple platforms through the software development lifecycle-can be tedious and error-prone. Learn the key features to look for in a solution and how to ensure the highest quality multi-tier applications. Explore the business and technical challenges involving changes in enterprise applications.

Melissa Borza, Computer Associates International Inc.

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