Overview of Configuration Management Best Practices Book
The kindest.
Not so long ago, I was puzzled by the search for software configuration management books. The result is a review of the literature on SCM , mainly English. The finalists were 3 books that it was decided to purchase and study. And the first of them, both in terms of “interestingness” and authority, for me personally, was the book Configuration Management Best Practices : Practical Methods that Work in the Real World, written by Bob Aiello (Robert Aiello) in collaboration with Leslie Sachs ). The Russian name can be translated as " Best configuration management practices : practical methods that work in the real world."
While I was ordering and waiting, I had time to read it in electronic form (piracy is a terrible evil!), But I don’t regret the money spent - the author’s work should be paid. And the book is very pleasant outwardly and internally. What is it about?
The book is divided into 4 parts:
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The Core CM Best Practices Framework . The basis, the beginning began. It is told what SCM is, why it is needed, what basic practices it consists of - briefly and to the point. Interestingly, version control is referred to here by the more general term source code management, i.e. source code management. This was done intentionally, because The author believes that version control (as this area is traditionally called) is only one of the code management functions. A lot has been told about change control. Again, the term is more general than just the traditional “bug tracking”, because it’s about high-level approaches to the issue. And, by the way, not a word about these error tracking systems :), only about requests for product changes. A lot of attention is paid to the release of the product - namely, the release of releases and deployment, along with the control of dependencies.
Architecture and Hardware CM . It describes two distinct aspects of how SCM works. First, the assumption is introduced that the design of the project architecture can be based on the configuration management of this project itself. A bold and strange at first glance assumption, but interestingly stated.
Secondly, the issue of hardware configuration management is raised. For the development of systems where hardware is involved or being developed is an extremely necessary thing. Only the basics of the HCM organization are described, since in each case the implementation will be different.
The People Side of CM . The whole section is essentially a story about how logical rules and procedures collide with illogical and contradictory human nature. Here is the pragmatic “Rightsizing Your processes” (how to make the processes not too cumbersome), and the complete struggle “Overcoming Resistance to Change”, and the all-forgiving “Learning From Mistakes That I Have Made”. Here is the chapter written by psychologist-co-author Leslie, "Personality and CM: A Psychologist Looks at the Workplace". The names speak for themselves, the whole section - it is about people and that says it all.
Compliance, Standards, and Frameworks . As the name suggests, it summarizes the experience of studying and using various standards and process templates. After all, the SCM itself has existed for three or four decades, so there have long been standardized approaches. About them and the story is.
About the author. Bob Aiello has been working in the SCM field for 25 years (a quarter of a century!). During this time, I reworked in several companies, participated in a heap of projects and consulted a lot of people. At the moment, in addition to consulting, is the deputy head of the IEEE 828 working group on Configuration Management Planning. In his spare time, he is the chief editor of CM Crossroads, the central resource for SCM issues. In other words - a major league player, a man and a steamer.
About the book in general. If you look at the whole, then the book is about people, oddly enough. All described approaches are described from the point of view of common sense and daily work of simple engineers. Many personal examples, where negative experience is especially valuable.
What else is valuable is the fact that in one source it is collected what was previously possible to read either in standards (dry formal language), or in separate sources where there is no common “picture of the world”. This book is a pleasant exception.
Who needs a book and why?
If you write code or test - it will be simply useful to find out what is happening around, and why managers suddenly lead some person who starts explaining how to live correctly.
If you work as a release engineer or a CM engineer, you should definitely not read a more general view of the subject area. A complete picture of the world in the head after reading is provided. Understanding where to go further will manifest itself even more clearly.
If you are in charge of a project or you are a technical leader, I highly recommend reading it, if only because there are many intersections with general project activities. And in general, SM is a basic area, and therefore it creates many bottlenecks, bottlenecks, so to overcome them you need to know from which side to approach. Therefore, on Habr posted the blog "Project Management".
In general, the necessary book, we must take. I took in amazon .
Not so long ago, I was puzzled by the search for software configuration management books. The result is a review of the literature on SCM , mainly English. The finalists were 3 books that it was decided to purchase and study. And the first of them, both in terms of “interestingness” and authority, for me personally, was the book Configuration Management Best Practices : Practical Methods that Work in the Real World, written by Bob Aiello (Robert Aiello) in collaboration with Leslie Sachs ). The Russian name can be translated as " Best configuration management practices : practical methods that work in the real world."
While I was ordering and waiting, I had time to read it in electronic form (piracy is a terrible evil!), But I don’t regret the money spent - the author’s work should be paid. And the book is very pleasant outwardly and internally. What is it about?
The book is divided into 4 parts:
')
The Core CM Best Practices Framework . The basis, the beginning began. It is told what SCM is, why it is needed, what basic practices it consists of - briefly and to the point. Interestingly, version control is referred to here by the more general term source code management, i.e. source code management. This was done intentionally, because The author believes that version control (as this area is traditionally called) is only one of the code management functions. A lot has been told about change control. Again, the term is more general than just the traditional “bug tracking”, because it’s about high-level approaches to the issue. And, by the way, not a word about these error tracking systems :), only about requests for product changes. A lot of attention is paid to the release of the product - namely, the release of releases and deployment, along with the control of dependencies.
Architecture and Hardware CM . It describes two distinct aspects of how SCM works. First, the assumption is introduced that the design of the project architecture can be based on the configuration management of this project itself. A bold and strange at first glance assumption, but interestingly stated.
Secondly, the issue of hardware configuration management is raised. For the development of systems where hardware is involved or being developed is an extremely necessary thing. Only the basics of the HCM organization are described, since in each case the implementation will be different.
The People Side of CM . The whole section is essentially a story about how logical rules and procedures collide with illogical and contradictory human nature. Here is the pragmatic “Rightsizing Your processes” (how to make the processes not too cumbersome), and the complete struggle “Overcoming Resistance to Change”, and the all-forgiving “Learning From Mistakes That I Have Made”. Here is the chapter written by psychologist-co-author Leslie, "Personality and CM: A Psychologist Looks at the Workplace". The names speak for themselves, the whole section - it is about people and that says it all.
Compliance, Standards, and Frameworks . As the name suggests, it summarizes the experience of studying and using various standards and process templates. After all, the SCM itself has existed for three or four decades, so there have long been standardized approaches. About them and the story is.
About the author. Bob Aiello has been working in the SCM field for 25 years (a quarter of a century!). During this time, I reworked in several companies, participated in a heap of projects and consulted a lot of people. At the moment, in addition to consulting, is the deputy head of the IEEE 828 working group on Configuration Management Planning. In his spare time, he is the chief editor of CM Crossroads, the central resource for SCM issues. In other words - a major league player, a man and a steamer.
About the book in general. If you look at the whole, then the book is about people, oddly enough. All described approaches are described from the point of view of common sense and daily work of simple engineers. Many personal examples, where negative experience is especially valuable.
What else is valuable is the fact that in one source it is collected what was previously possible to read either in standards (dry formal language), or in separate sources where there is no common “picture of the world”. This book is a pleasant exception.
Who needs a book and why?
If you write code or test - it will be simply useful to find out what is happening around, and why managers suddenly lead some person who starts explaining how to live correctly.
If you work as a release engineer or a CM engineer, you should definitely not read a more general view of the subject area. A complete picture of the world in the head after reading is provided. Understanding where to go further will manifest itself even more clearly.
If you are in charge of a project or you are a technical leader, I highly recommend reading it, if only because there are many intersections with general project activities. And in general, SM is a basic area, and therefore it creates many bottlenecks, bottlenecks, so to overcome them you need to know from which side to approach. Therefore, on Habr posted the blog "Project Management".
In general, the necessary book, we must take. I took in amazon .
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/109892/
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