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Configuration Management was Re: [LUG] groupware



Paul Hewson wrote:
> 
> I know cvs etc. are for programming projects, but don't they have some
> potential?
> 
> Is there that much difference between html source / cgi scripts etc. and c
> source files?????
> 
> I don't think I'm seriously suggesting cvs or rcs, but I wonder what may be
> around that's based on them.

For my sins I use to sell Software Configuration management
tools. So such issues were key to making a living.

Tools like RCS and CVS are okay for source code management, but
in themselves they do not provide much process. 

This was one of the issues we had with our product, it was
probably the best tool for managing concurrent versions of
source code (A bit like the best bits of CVS and Microsoft VSS,
but cross platform, GUI or Command line, and customisable).

But a lot of the software development process doesn't require
parallel development, just simple revisioning. 

The configuration management software adds value by;
 Understanding your objects
 Implementing process

So in say Engineering, the tools that handle CAD diagrams,
understand what an assembly is, you can query for assemblies
that use a component, or query on the basis of elements of the
manufacturing process ("What parts can't be made on our current
lathes" type queries). Thus a simple CAD tool can be used to
help plan manufacturing of the parts designed, and the life
cycle of a part.

In a web publishing system this might be an understanding of the
relationship implied by a URL. That deleting a CGI script means
having to update references to it.

Similarly processes, like peer review, or 'sign-off', or
publishing, are useful in groupware for technical documents, but
have little or nothing to do with the content, but a lot to do
with practicalities of days to day work. Like making sure people
review the stuff they are suppose to.

>From a mechanical perspective web pages are like source code, so
yes tools can be built around these SCM tools, but it may be
possible to use a simpler revision mechanism, and build a far
better web publishing tool.

Indeed the clever revisioning mechanisms can make configuration
management more involved, as the software CM tools would move a
bug fix across versions easily, but you usually have to manage
releases of a version at the package level, to make sure all the
bug fixes live happily together, and apply at this version. For
most purposes a good merge tool for your current document format
will do 90% of the clever stuff the SCM tools do.

The biggest problem we found with software was the moving target
- people wanted SCM tools integrated to the latest and greatest
software development products, be it Microsoft Visual Studio,
PowerBuilder, JBuilder, Oracle Designer - for which many of the
tool authors hadn't given a thought to good configuration
management techniques. In these situation a really simple tool
like PVCS could do the integrations quicker and cheaper, which
would satisfy people not attempting to maintain multiple
versions of software.

Similarly for document management, people want to ability to
"diff", or redline, wordprocessing documents, presentations, and
the like (They may not know they want it, but they recognise it
when it is given to them). Again the targets keep moving, and
the interest is mainly the minority technical authors, be it
scientific, medical or legal.

I've seen some great, low cost, workflow style systems, where
you can define software lifecycle, or "Medical paper" lifecycle,
or a "standard writing" lifecycle. And it will manage peoples
in-trays of work, allow people to indicate when they have done
the next step, show who is behind, who is ahead etc. But this
style of running a business is very formalised, and not to
everyones taste.

In the end the SCM tool vendor I worked with, merged a cheap
Windows based tool of this kind specifically aimed at software
houses, so you could ask, "Which developer is working on the
most bug fixes", or "which developers are working on a bug fix
that should be released by the end of next month", or "which
features have been added to the latest release", or "which
customers are waiting for this feature". Similarly when a
software release was issued, it would prompt customer support to
ring up the customers who needed fixes included in the release.
Developers could go browse the latest bug reports, or their
managers could allocate them bugs to fix.

Anyway enough rambling - I think my point is that workflow may
be as or more important than clever SCM tricks - of course if
you merge the two successfully you may have the next killer
application.

 Simon

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