Articles

New Branching Standards for Configuration Management

Joe Farah explores a potential standard for next generation branching. It not only has advanced capabilities and processes, but can also significantly reduce CM complexity and increase CM automation.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
How to Build a Configuration Management Plan

If you're planning a configuration management (CM) project, it's time to build a CM Plan. Joe Farah writes on on a number of areas that need to be addressed in your plan in order to follow software configuration management (SCM) best practices.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
Essentials of the Build Process

Build is central to CM and iit's critical to do it right. A basic build capability is founded on two key fundamentals: the ability to reproduce the build and the ability to automate the build process. Without these fundamentals, you're fighting an uphill battle. Reproduction of the build implies that you have a CM system able to capture the build definition. Automation helps to ensure that no manual errors can play into the production, but this is just a basic build capability.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
How to Evaluate CM and ALM Tools

Joe Farah writes that evaluating and selecting configuration managment (CM) and application lifecycle management (ALM) tools is an opportunity both to ensure that you have a good process in place and to learn the present state and the state-of-the art in CM and ALM technology.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
Using Dashboards to Clarify Project and Product Perspectives in SCM

Joe Farah explains that a configuration management (CM) strategy must deal with product development from both a product and from a project perspective. Dashboard technology can help to clarify the perspectives and simplify the management functions, especially from an information perspective.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
Five Mistakes a Company Can Make When Using Configuration Management

Joe Farah details five mistakes a company can make when using configuration management (CM). Until we start to admit to our mistakes and strive to reach the next generation of CM, we'll stagnate.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
The Events That Will Help Shape the Future of Configuration Management

Joe Farah details the events that will help shape the coming year of configuration management (CM) and application lifecycle management (ALM). The CM and ALM industry will prosper as companies look at how they can reduce costs.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
Determine How a Vendor's Tool Will Support Your Project CM Plan

I've seen countless sets of requirements and RFIs come my way for acquiring new CM/ALM tools. However, it is a very rare occasion when I see a company actually publish (and send out) the project CM Plan to potential tool vendors. In my most recent encounter of this approach, the pitch was: How would you change this plan based on your CM/ALM solution for us? This project has it right—not just a set of requirements, but an actual CM Plan, and not so much, "What does your tool do?" as, "What will our CM Plan look like with your solution?"

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
Selecting a CM/ALM Tool That Will Add Value to All Users

Selecting a CM/ALM tool is no small task these days. The CM/ALM tool is no longer just another developer tool, such as a compiler or IDE environment. Instead, it forms the backbone of a development organization. It will strongly influence an organization's ability to measure and control quality, meet schedules, comply to requirements and assess development costs. It will also be the central focus for all development processes. It will support a key knowledge base, and will be viewed as the vault for both software and product assets.

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah
How Does the Shift Toward Web-Based Technology Influence CM?

While the definition of Web 2.0 has barely begun to settle down, applications must start to react. Web 2.0 is, from a technology viewpoint, mostly a combination of collaborative web technology and application web interfaces that mimic their native client counterparts. From a social viewpoint, it's a communication and information transition: blogs, Facebook, integrated chat, and meeting capabilities create a web base of knowledge so that anyone can search for anyone or anything and communicate or contribute to the subject matter. From a CM/ALM perspective, there has always been a need to have a base of knowledge, of data, and of people. The success of CM depends on it. So how really does Web 2.0 play into the next generation of CM?

Joe Farah's picture Joe Farah

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