Configuration Management Best Practices: Practical Methods that Work in the Real World - Softcover

Aiello, Bob; Sachs, Leslie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0321685865 ISBN 13: 9780321685865

Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional, 2010

Synopsis

Successfully Implement High-Value Configuration Management Processes in Any Development Environment

 

As IT systems have grown increasingly complex and mission-critical, effective configuration management (CM) has become critical to an organization’s success. Using CM best practices, IT professionals can systematically manage change, avoiding unexpected problems introduced by changes to hardware, software, or networks. Now, today’s best CM practices have been gathered in one indispensable resource showing you how to implement them throughout any agile or traditional development organization.

 

Configuration Management Best Practices is practical, easy to understand and apply, and fully reflects the day-to-day realities faced by practitioners. Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs thoroughly address all six “pillars” of CM: source code management, build engineering, environment configuration, change control, release engineering, and deployment. They demonstrate how to implement CM in ways that support software and systems development, meet compliance rules such as SOX and SAS-70, anticipate emerging standards such as IEEE/ISO 12207, and integrate with modern frameworks such as ITIL, COBIT, and CMMI. Coverage includes

 

• Using CM to meet business objectives, contractual requirements, and compliance rules
• Enhancing quality and productivity through lean processes and “just-in-time” process improvement
• Getting off to a good start in organizations without effective CM
• Implementing a Core CM Best Practices Framework that supports the entire development lifecycle
• Mastering the “people” side of CM: rightsizing processes, overcoming resistance, and understanding
  workplace psychology
• Architecting applications to take full advantage of CM best practices
• Establishing effective IT controls and compliance
• Managing tradeoffs and costs and avoiding expensive pitfalls

 

Configuration Management Best Practices is the essential resource for everyone concerned with CM: from CTOs and CIOs to development, QA, and project managers and software engineers to analysts, testers, and compliance professionals.

 

Praise for Configuration Management Best Practices

 

“Understanding change is critical to any attempt to manage change. Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs’s Configuration Management Best Practices presents fundamental definitions and explanations to help practitioners understand change and its potential impact.”

–Mary Lou A. Hines Fritts, CIO and Vice Provost Academic Programs, University of Missouri-Kansas City

 

“Few books on software configuration management emphasize the role of people and organizational context in defining and executing an effective SCM process. Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs’s book will give you the information you need not only to manage change effectively but also to manage the transition to a better SCM process.”

–Steve Berczuk, Agile Software Developer, and author of Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration

 

“Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs succeed handsomely in producing an important book, at a practical and balanced level of detail, for this topic that often ‘goes without saying’ (and hence gets many projects into deep trouble). Their passion for the topic shows as they cover a wonderful range of topics–even culture, personality, and dealing with resistance to change–in an accessible form that can be applied to any project. The software industry has needed a book like this for a long time!”

–Jim Brosseau, Clarrus Consulting Group, and author of Software Teamwork: Taking Ownership for Success

 

“A must read for anyone developing or managing software or hardware projects. Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs are able to bridge the language gap between the myriad of communities involved with successful Configuration Management implementations. They describe practical, real world practices that can be implemented by developers, managers, standard makers, and even Classical CM Folk.”

–Bob Ventimiglia, Bobev Consulting

 

“A fresh and smart review of today’s key concepts of SCM, build management, and related key practices on day-to-day software engineering. From the voice of an expert, Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs offer an invaluable resource to success in SCM.”

–Pablo Santos Luaces, CEO of Codice Software

 

“Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs have a gift for stimulating the types of conversation and thought that necessarily precede needed organizational change. What they have to say is always interesting and often important.”

–Marianne Bays, Business Consultant, Manager and Educator

 

About this title

About the Author

Bob Aiello is the editor-in-chief for CM Crossroads and a consultant specializing in software process improvement, including software configuration and release management. Mr. Aiello has more than 25 years of experience as a technical manager in several top NYC financial services firms where he had companywide responsibility for CM, often providing hands-on technical support for enterprise source code management tools, SOX/Cobit compliance, build engineering, continuous integration, and automated application deployment. Mr. Aiello is the vice chair of the IEEE 828 Standards working group (CM Planning) and is a member of the IEEE Software and Systems Engineering Standards Committee (S2ESC) management board. He is a longstanding member of the steering committee of the NYC Software Process Improvement Network (CitySPIN), where he has served as the chair of the CM SIG. Mr. Aiello holds a master’s degree in industrial psychology from NYU and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and math from Hofstra University.

 

Leslie Sachs is the COO of Yellow Spider, Inc., which specializes in providing CM-related consulting services that are aligned with the practices described in this book. Ms. Sachs also writes about applying personality to technology endeavors in her column titled Personality Matters. A New York State Certified School Psychologist with more than 20 years of experience, Ms. Sachs has worked in a variety of clinical and business settings where she has provided many effective interventions designed to improve the social and educational functioning of both individuals and groups. Ms. Sachs has a Masters of Science degree in school and community psychology from Pace University and interned in Bellevue Hospital’s famed Psychiatric Center in NYC. A firm believer in the uniqueness of every individual, she has recently done advanced training with Mel Levine’s All Kinds of Minds Institute.

 

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Configuration management (CM) plays a critical role in any technology development effort. I have been involved with implementing and supporting CM for over 25 years and much of what I am about to discuss comes directly from my own personal experience. I have implemented and supported each of these CM practices, often with the agreement that I could be woken in the middle of the night if my processes/automation did not work as expected. As an instructor, I have taught industry strength CM tools to over 900+ technology professionals (again with the offer that they got my home phone number upon successfully completing my class). My colleagues and students have consistently indicated that my passion and love for this discipline has always been abundantly clear. It is my view that configuration management consists of six functional areas:

1. Source Code Management
2. Build Engineering
3. Environment Configuration
4. Change Control
5. Release Engineering
6. Deployment

I have searched for, but never found, any single book (or even a series of books) that covered all of these functional areas. Most CM books are either too narrowly focused on one key area (e.g., building code with Ant) or so “ivory tower” that they did not give me enough information on how to really implement these functions in a practical real world environment. It’s nice to point out the need to “maintain control of all configuration items”, but unless you tell me exactly how to do that in a practical and realistic way, the advice is not truly utilizable. It is my intent both to cast a wide net on the CM practices that you need to understand and also to provide enough detail so that you know not only “what” each CM function entails, but, just as importantly “how” to implement each of the CM functions. I expect that my readers will hold me to that commitment (see the URL of the supporting website below).

The Traditional Definition of Configuration Management

Configuration management or in this context, software configuration management (SCM) has a traditional definition of consisting of four specific functions. They are:

1. Configuration identification
2. Change control
3. Status accounting
4. Configuration audit

These functions have long been described in industry standards and frameworks and obviously viewed as essential to any valid configuration management effort. While I agree completely that these functions are correct and essential, I find their terminology to be difficult for many technology professionals to understand and appreciate. In this book, I will discuss the traditional CM functions, and I will also suggest a framework for understanding and implementing configuration management in a way that I believe will reflect current industry practices. Specifically, I will show the relationship between the four classic functions and the six functions of source code management, build engineering, environment configuration, change control, release engineering, and deployment that I believe more closely reflect the way that CM is actually done on a day to day basis. This is an important focus of my efforts to make configuration management best practices more approachable and practical for technology professionals to enjoy as part of their own process improvement efforts.

Terminology and CM

Configuration Management, like many other disciplines, suffers from the use of confusing terminology. I am not going to solve that problem in this book, but I will endeavor to at least not make the situation worse. The acronym SCM has been used to refer to both Source Code Management and, more recently, Software Configuration Management. One of my most knowledgeable colleagues has prevailed upon me to not make the situation worse, so I will only use the SCM acronym to refer to the broader Software Configuration Management, which is a specialization of Configuration Management (as opposed to hardware configuration management discussed in Chapter 8). Similarly, the acronym CI is used to refer to both Configuration Items and Continuous Integration. CM terminology can indeed be quite confusing. I can’t do much about the confusion caused by this dual use of CI as an acronym, as it is pervasive, but I will do what I can be as clear as possible. Whenever possible, I will endeavor to use the definitions the IEEE’s SEVOCAB: Software and Systems Engineering Vocabulary, which at the time of this writing could be found at http://www.computer.org/sevocab.

Why I Love CM

I love CM because it is a creative and exciting endeavor that can significantly add value by improving quality and productivity in any technology project. Not only will I discuss what I have learned, but I will also be relating the combined experience of thousands of CM experts who have kindly shared their own expertise and best practices with me over the years that I have been engaged in this work. I owe each of these fine colleagues a debt of gratitude for all that they have shared with me. I have written and published many articles on configuration management and thoroughly enjoyed the feedback that I have received (especially when those supplying it disagreed with me and offered other practical approaches to solving thorny CM related problems). I anticipate that this book will also generate considerable interaction with my colleagues especially through the supporting http://www.cmbestpractices.com website that I have created Please visit this website for up-to-date information on the topics that we discuss in this book as well as to give me feedback about your own experiences with implementing configuration management.

Why I Wrote This Book

I have written this book to share my expertise and experience with implementing all aspects of CM in realistic business, engineering and government environments. I hope that you will find this information to be practical, comprehensive and helpful in implementing CM in a variety of real world situations.

Some topics in CM are evolving so quickly that writing a book on them would be a daunting task indeed. For example, as I write this chapter, my “day-job” is to implement IBM’s latest Application Lifecycle Management (ALM) solution that includes a brand new Source Code Management and automated workflow solution. Therefore, for this book, I will discuss how to select a CM tool in only general terms, but restrict tool specific comments to my support website so that the information can be kept current and accurate. I also hope that you will hold me accountable for the accuracy of every word that I write because I have very strong personal views that CM is essential on a moral, ethical and theological basis. While CM is not my “religion”, doing honest and high quality work is certainly part of my religious belief system. I also view spreading CM best practices as being a model for good corporate citizenship. I have been very active in the virtual community that develops and supports configuration management as well as other aspects of application development. On any given day you can see technology professionals providing each other with substantial assistance without regard for whether or not they work for competing organizations. The community is truly culturally diverse, multilingual, and universal in its respect for and acceptance of others. I am proud to be part of this work and wish my efforts to promote CM best practices to be part of a wider movement to promote effective IT controls, responsible business leadership, and good corporate citizenship resulting in greater services and value for everyone who shares this increasingly tiny world that we live in. To say this in another way, I believe that every government agency, financial services firm (including banks, hedge funds and insurance firms) along with firms that are in the medical, pharmaceutical, and defense (and every other) industry should be required to implement proper IT controls to protect the public who rely upon their services as well as shareholder value. I wrote this book, in part, to help transition this effort from being a burden to instead being a journey in improving productivity and quality. It is my belief that implementing IT controls, including CM best practices, in a pragmatic way should result in higher profitability for the members of the firms, their shareholders, as well as the public who rely upon their services.

Who Should Read This Book

Technology Professionals including development managers, system architects, developers, systems engineers, hardware engineers, quality assurance, quality engineering, operations engineers and technology project managers will all benefit from the information in this book. CTOs, IT auditors and also corporate managers will especially enjoy the sections on establishing IT controls and compliance. Whether you are an Agile enthusiast or working with a classic waterfall lifecycle, this book will help you get your job done better. CM is all about good corporate citizenship. The news media love to report instances of corporate greed and incompetence among those who have a responsibility for providing and maintaining technology for the public good. CM best practices help insure that the global economy runs smoothly, ATMs work correctly, air traffic control systems remain online, and so on. If you want your technology development efforts to be more efficient and to yield higher quality products then this book is for you.

How to Read This Book

You should at least skim the Introduction as this section will give you an overview of the CM functions as well as their overall linkages. You should also feel free to skip to the area that you need help with next. I have endeavored to write each chapter so that it can be read and used separately. In practice, this has often been how I implemented CM. For example, I have often skipped directly to solving the most urgent problems (as indicated by the customer) without being rigid about the order of implementing CM functions. That said, there are some dependencies and I will do my best to describe them as well.

How This Book Is Organized

This book is organized into fourteen chapters divided into four parts. Part I, “The Core CM Best Practices Framework,” consists of six chapters covering source code management, build engineering, change control, environment configuration, release engineering and deployment. Part II, covers Architecture and Hardware CM, while Part III covers the essential people issues that you need to know in order to effectively implement CM Best Practices. Part IV covers Compliance and the Standards (e.g. IEEE) and Frameworks (e.g. ITIL, Cobit, CMMI) needed to establish effective IT Controls. What follows in the next section is a short description of each chapter.

Part I – The Core CM Best Practices Framework

Six chapters make up the Core CM Best Practices Framework.

Chapter 1: Source Code Management

Source code management is an essential starting point for any configuration management function. In this chapter, we discuss the requirements for an effective source code management effort as well as some of the core concepts. In source code management you make sure that you know where all of the artifacts needed by your application are located and that they are all properly identified and can be managed effectively. If we were baking a pie, then Source Code Management would help you ensure that you have all of the correct ingredients on hand and in their proper amounts.

Chapter 2: Build Engineering

Build engineering includes the compilation of all of the configuration items that go into a release. Your build engineering practices need to be efficient, reliable, and repeatable. Build engineering also includes procedures for building in the essential version IDs that are required for configuration identification. Build engineering involves mixing the batter and baking the pie itself.

Chapter 3: Environment Configuration

Environment configuration involves handling the compile and runtime changes necessary for the promotion of code from development to QA to production. It also includes the configuration and management of the requirements. Environment configuration ensures that you have the shelf ready to show off the great pie that you baked.

Chapter 4: Change Control

There are seven functions in change control, including evaluating requests for change, gatekeeping (e.g., promotion), configuration control, emergency change control, process changes, advising on the downstream impact of a potential change, and senior management oversite of change control. Change control decides when the pie is baked and ready to be taken from the oven and sent to the happy person who will enjoy the pie.

Chapter 5: Release Management

Release management involves packaging the configuration items into components that can be reliably promoted and deployed as needed. Release management is effectively putting your pie into the nice box with the open window so that others can see and appreciate the fine work that you have done.

Chapter 6: Deployment

Deployment should be a narrowly defined function of promoting the pre-packaged release to QA or production as needed. This is effectively putting your pie on the truck to be delivered to your consumers (make sure that you get my home address correct for delivery).

This completes the first half of the book covering what I view as being the essential core CM competencies necessary for any CM function. I am really getting hungry now so I have to stop using a pie as a metaphor for CM. The rest of the chapters make up the eight supporting functions that are also important for the implementation of an effective CM effort.

Part II – Architecture and Hardware CM

Architecture and hardware also are candidates for CM.

Chapter 7: Architecting Your Application for CM

This is an often overlooked aspect of configuration management and involves recognizing the interrelationship between application architecture and configuration management. The essential nature of CM is the same whether you are implementing it on a mainframe or your favorite handheld device. But the actual procedures will vary significantly based upon the architecture of your application. So implementing CM on a WINTEL platform may be very different than on a Unix/Linux platform using Java SOA or C++. This chapter is about understanding that relationship.

Chapter 8: Hardware Configuration Management

I need to write a whole book on hardware configuration management. There just isn’t enough recognition of its value and importance in the CM field. I have been frequently asked to write about hardware CM. This chapter begins what I am sure will be a longer journey.

Part III – The People Side of CM

You can't afford to ignore the people side of any business or organizational endeavor. CM is no different.

Chapter 9: Rightsizing Your Processes

...

Edition details

• Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
• Publication date: 2010
• ISBN 10: 0321685865
• ISBN 13: 9780321685865
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 272