Robust configuration management (CM) practices are critical for creating continuous builds to support agile’s integration and testing demands, and for rapidly packaging, releasing, and deploying applications into production. Classic CM—identifying system components, controlling changes, reporting the system’s configuration, and auditing—won’t do the trick anymore. Bob Aiello presents an in-depth tour of a more robust and powerful approach to CM consisting of six key functions: source code management, build engineering, environment management, change management and control, release management, and deployment. Bob describes current and emerging CM trends—support for agile development, cloud computing, and mobile apps development—and reviews the industry standards and frameworks available in practice today. Take back an integrated approach to establish proper IT governance and compliance using the latest CM practices while offering development teams the most effective CM practices available today.
Bob Aiello
Editor-in-chief of CM Crossroads and author of Configuration Management Best Practices: Practical Methods that Work in the Real World, Bob Aiello is a consultant and software engineer specializing in software process improvement, including software configuration and release management. He has more than twenty-five years of experience as a technical manager at top New York City financial services firms, where he held company-wide responsibility for configuration management. Bob served as vice chair of the IEEE 828 Standards Working Group on CM Planning and a member of the IEEE Software and Systems Engineering Standards Committee Management Board. Contact Bob at [email protected], via LinkedIn, or visit cmbestpractices.com.
DevOps is an emerging set of principles, methods, and practices that enable the rapid deployment of software systems. DevOps focuses on lowering barriers between development, testing, security, and operations in support of rapid iterative development and deployment. Many organizations struggle when implementing DevOps because of its inherent technical, process, and cultural challenges. Bob Aiello shares DevOps best practices starting with its role early in the application lifecycle and bridging the gap with testing, security, and operations. Bob explains how to implement DevOps using industry standards and frameworks such as ITIL v3 (IT Service Management) in both agile and non-agile environments, focusing on automated deployment frameworks that quickly deliver value to the business. DevOps includes server provisioning essential for cloud computing in what is becoming known as Infrastructure as Code. Bob equips you with practical and effective DevOps practices—automated application build, packaging, and deployment—essential for meeting today's business and technology demands.
Due to its ease of use and distributed repository infrastructure, Git is quickly becoming the version control system of choice for many. Getting started takes only a few minutes, and available online tutorials explain Git basics and more advanced features including branching. As easy as Git is to implement, many developers find Git challenging to scale for large enterprises. Some go to Cloud-based Git service providers; others implement tools such as Stash and gitflow for effective branching patterns and variant management. Integrating Git with other tools including workflow automation, continuous integration, and continuous delivery all come with their own challenges. Bob Aiello “gits” you started with understanding how to implement and maintain a flexible and scalable Git infrastructure that can support your agile development efforts including continuous delivery and DevOps. Git is a great tool, and scaling Git for the enterprise is very doable—if you implement the right tools and processes.