Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration

by Stephen P. Berczuk and Brad Appleton

Book Overview

Aims to alleviate software engineers' common concerns about software configuration management. Through the use of patterns, this book shows that a properly managed workflow can avert delays, morale... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0201741172
• ISBN13: 9780201741179
• Release Date: November 2003
• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Length: 256 Pages
• Weight: 1.11 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.3" x 9.1"

Customer Reviews

Excellent-A wonderful collection of patterns to support team development

I knew this book would be different from the use of "Teamwork" in its subtitle. Many of the configuration managers with whom I've worked through the years demonstrated an attitude that was about anything but teamwork. They viewed their job as protecting the source code (and other assets) of a project to the point of getting in the way of the developers. So based on its subtitle, I had very high hopes for this book. I was not let down. This book is excellent. The book starts with a couple of introductory chapters and then devotes a chapter to each of 16 patterns. I really like that the book devotes a full chapter to each pattern (and therefore covers substantial patterns) rather than covering each in two pages as is often the case in patterns books. As a coach and trainer of agile software development teams, I am often asked by these teams how they handle the software configuration management with such fast-moving processes. These excellent and highly readable book has collected a wonderful set of practices and will become a part of the standard canon I recommend to clients.

Best CM practices book I've found

This book could have also been called "Best CM and software development practices".I've read many CM books over the years and this is one of those rare books that focuses on the "rubber meets the road" aspect of good CM and software development practices.Many CM books out there are so theoretical that they are barely useful. This book answers many software development practice questions that I've had to address in my years of doing software process improvement and proprietary CM tool, ClearCase, Version Manager, Config Builder, Tracker, ClearQuest, and now PVCS Dimensions administration. Anyone who does CM for a living gets asked the "how do I do this" question where the question that first needs an answer is "what are you trying to do with the tool?". This book addresses those questions in a 100% practical and easy to understand way. I recommend this book to anyone who is serious about process improvement and CM and knows that it's usually not what CM tools you have but what you do with them is what helps software development get done in a sane fashion.

The Big Picture view of CM

Software Configuration Management (CM) is often needlessly painful. Processes don't scale, practices get reinvented after dragging everyone through long debates, shiny ... new tools get brought in as silver bullets then seem to fail. The CM failings I've seen stem in part from failure to match tools and practices to context. What works for a team of 3-5 doesn't scale once the team grows to 10 and beyond. What works when people are all within the sound of one another's voices doesn't scale when the team is split between buildings (or states).By approaching CM from a Patterns perspective--presenting CM approaches that balance competing forces within a context--this book lays out a coherent big picture against which specific tactical decisions can be made (e.g., do we develop on a main line, do we freeze, or do we branch? when do we merge?) and then made again when the situation changes.Don't buy this book expecting specific solutions using specific tools. The major CM systems are mentioned, but without going into detail on how to use them. Buy this book to get a good map of the problem space.

Implement a patterns-based SCM process

Following the extremely clear patterns-based view of SCM presented in this book is allowing my organization to greatly improve our SCM processes. The patterns approach has quickly improved the communication of our process- making SCM easily understood by CM people, developers, and managers. This book and the Bays book (Software Release Methodlogy) can be combined to develop a effective, repeatable, improving SCM and release process.To support other readers' comments (and update my review): Using a pattern language to describe SCM process has been helping people on my teams to take a more proactive role in SCM activities- identifying well thought-out branching scenarios, and how to manage their work areas (and work) to complete parallel development tasks. Impressive how describing parts of the process using several simple behavior patterns simplifies things...

A Required Handbook for SCM Practitioners

This exceptionally clear and extremely concise handbook is a must read for all SCM practitioners. The book is filled with practical advice to solve classic configuration management problems that arise on software projects.The book begins with an overview of SCM concepts and a discussion of the role of SCM in agile software development. This discussion dispels the myth that software configuration management must be process heavy to be effective.Much of the book consists of a description of patterns (i.e., problems that occur over and over again) related to software configuration management. Each pattern is described in a brief chapter that begins with a question about a common SCM problem. For example, the chapter on the task level commit pattern begins with the question, "How much work should you do between submissions to the version control system?"Each chapter that presents an SCM pattern describes the circumstances in which the pattern is relevant. The authors explain the pattern with the help of easy-to-understand diagrams and brief narratives of situations from real software projects in which the pattern is relevant. Most chapters also include relevant references to books and papers that elaborate on material covered in the chapter.Perhaps the most valuable aspect of this book is that an SCM engineer can reference it when speaking to project management and members of the development team about common SCM pitfalls and practical techniques that can be used to correct or avoid these pitfalls.