Software Configuration Management Strategies and IBM Rational ClearCase 2nd Edition | Date: 19 January 2011, 08:14
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Preface to the Second Edition Preface to the Second Edition Welcome to the second edition of Software Configuration Management Strategies and Rational ClearCase ! We have updated the first edition to enhance the strategies material and to reflect developments in the evolution of IBM Rational ClearCase . What This Book Is About This book is about the engineering discipline of software configuration management (SCM) and how the widely used SCM product, ClearCase, automates and supports SCM best practices through a model called Unified Change Management (UCM). This book covers basic SCM concepts, typical SCM problems encountered as projects and software systems grow in size and complexity, and how you can apply SCM tools and processes to solve these problems. Advanced SCM topics are also discussed, such as managing large geographically distributed teams and combining the disciplines of SCM and change request management (or defect tracking). Much material in the first edition of this book discussed the issues that arise in a software development project and how an SCM tool should be able to address those issues. That first edition material has been left intact and in some cases expanded simply because it represents fundamental truths about software development that have not changed and are unlikely to change as long as humans are involved in the process. The second edition of this book expands on the first edition by adding those features introduced to ClearCase since the first edition specifically the ClearCase Remote Client, UCM-enforced single-stream projects, full support for unlimited parent/child stream hierarchies, composite baselines and expanded and more flexible UCM policy configurations. Additionally we have added more discussion of ClearQuest and the new ClearQuest MultiSite product. UCM has evolved in many ways since the first edition was published, and many of the additions to this edition are due to our experiences in helping customers adopt and achieve success with ClearCase and UCM in their environment. Beyond the functional enhancements to ClearCase and ClearQuest, we have also included a discussion on monitoring and tuning ClearCase performance as well as usage models for UCM that we have seen being successfully practiced since the first edition was published. We believe this expanded information will provide significant assistance in helping the reader get the most out of their UCM environment and to understand the range of UCM development models that are supported and known to work. This book is based on the experience gained by the authors working with some incredible people in the SCM field over the last fifteen years. After reading it, you should have a better understanding of software configuration management, a better idea of the software development problems solved by using SCM tools and techniques, and a clear understanding of how you can use ClearCase to solve these problems and meet your SCM requirements. The authors sincerely hope you enjoy the book and find it valuable. What You Need to Know before Reading This Book The key to your success is understanding SCM, the requirements for your software project, and how to apply an SCM tool to meet a project s requirements. This book will get you started if you are new to software configuration management. However, you will get the most out of this book if you already have some SCM experience and have used basic version control tools before. This book assumes you are familiar with the software development process. It will also be helpful if you have a specific development project in mind while you are reading. Who You Are and Why You Should Read This Book This book is not about the nitty-gritty details of writing ClearCase triggers and scripting home-grown integrations with legacy tools; rather it will give you a high-level view of some common SCM scenarios and how ClearCase can be applied. If you are new to SCM or ClearCase, read this book cover to cover. If you have used ClearCase or have a strong foundation in SCM, look through the table of contents and pick chapters and sections that are of particular interest to you. For a Software Engineer The biggest thing an SCM tool can do for a software engineer is to stay out of the way. SCM should perform its function, yet be as transparent as possible. The SCM tool and how it is applied should maximize your ability to make changes to the software. Poor tools or poorly designed processes can add unnecessary time and effort to your work. This book can help you identify the areas in your SCM tools and processes to streamline. It discusses some new advances in the SCM area specifically designed for streamlining development. One of these is the notion of activity-based software configuration management. The idea here is to raise the level of abstraction from files to activities. This makes working with an SCM tool, tracking your changes, and sharing changes with other software engineers more intuitive. If you re new to SCM, read Chapter 1, What Is Software Configuration Management? For an overview of the objects managed by ClearCase, see chapter 4, A Functional Overview of ClearCase Objects. To gain an understanding of how ClearCase is used on a daily basis from a development perspective, see chapter 8, Development Using the ClearCase UCM Model. For a Software Project Manager or Technical Leader As a leader for a software project, you are concerned with deciding what changes to make to a software system and then ensuring that those changes happen. Unplanned changes, made by well-meaning developers, introduce risk into the project schedule and may cause schedule delays and poor product quality. The ability to control and track change is essential to your project s success. This book should help you gain a solid understanding of SCM, see why you need it, and learn how ClearCase can be used to solve problems you may encounter on projects. Specifically, see chapter 6, Project Management in ClearCase, and chapter 7, Managing and Organizing Your ClearCase Projects. If you are managing teams that are not all in one location, see chapter 11, Geographically Distributed Development, for a discussion of the issues and strategies involved. For a Tools Engineer The role of tools engineer is often overlooked but is essential to success, particularly in large organizations. Your job is to figure out how to apply a given tool to the people, processes, and organization for which you work. This book will give you information about SCM and ClearCase that you can use to determine the best way to apply ClearCase to projects. For Those Evaluating ClearCase This book is a good starting point in the evaluation of ClearCase because it presents a number of common software development scenarios as well as more complex scenarios such as geographically distributed development. It discusses the requirements of SCM processes and tools in terms of a set of SCM best practices and shows how to apply ClearCase to support them. Included are overviews of ClearCase s out-of-the-box process, Unified Change Management, and ClearCase objects. Use chapter 1, What Is Software Configuration Management?, and chapter 2, Growing into Your SCM Solution, to help determine the SCM tool requirements for your project. Look to the remaining chapters to determine whether ClearCase will meet your needs. For Experienced ClearCase Users If you are a long-time ClearCase user, this book is interesting from a general software configuration management perspective and may offer some insights into how to approach SCM solutions on your projects. It also offers some advice if you are being asked to support geographically distributed development teams (see chapter 11, Geographically Distributed Development). The book contains an overview of ClearCase s out-of-the-box usage model called Unified Change Management, which is a recent addition (see chapter 3, An Overview of the Unified Change Management Model). If you are curious about integrating change request management with ClearCase, then look at chapter 12, Change Request Management and ClearQuest. Look also through the table of contents and pick chapters and sections that are of particular interest to you. How the Book Is Laid Out Here is a brief summary of all the chapters. Chapter 1, What Is Software Configuration Management, provides a general introduction to software configuration management and the key best practices behind it. It answers the questions: what is software configuration management?, what are SCM tools?, and what is the SCM process? Chapter 2, Growing into Your SCM Solution, discusses the growing complexity of software development projects and proposes that as projects grow in complexity so does their need for richer SCM support. It covers the history of SCM tool evolution using five categories of software projects ranging from software developed by a single individual to projects with many geographically distributed project teams. Chapter 3, An Overview of the Unified Change Management Model, provides an overview of ClearCase s out-of-the-box usage model, unified change management, which automates and supports a particular SCM process. The material is discussed in terms of the roles and responsibilities of the various team members, such as the architect, project manager, developer, and integrator. Chapter 4, A Functional Overview of ClearCase Objects, provides a functional overview of ClearCase objects and concepts. This chapter serves as a bridge between general SCM terminology and ClearCase-specific terminology. Chapter 5, Establishing the Initial SCM Environment, provides information on setting up an initial SCM environment. It discusses the basics of ClearCase architecture as well as how to approach performance tuning and monitoring. The chapter also covers mapping the software architecture to the physical components in the SCM tool and briefly discusses creating the SCM repositories and importing existing software. Chapter 6, Project Management in ClearCase, focuses on the role of the project manager with respect to SC...
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