Change and Configuration Management

The swift delivery of higher-quality software relies on effective software change and configuration management (SCCM). Industry analyst Gartner go further: ‘through 2015, people and process issues will cause 80% of mission-critical outages – and change / configuration / release integration and handoff issues will be behind more than half of those outages.’

Is increased ‘Agility’ the answer?

Many firms prefer the increased levels of collaboration inherent in the agile software delivery as a natural antidote to more traditional, less effective working practices. While agile brings improvements, it can also create a different set of issues, as departmental or project-based Agile initiatives fail to upscale to enterprise-class agile. Problems can stem from bringing in developer-sourced tooling from different teams and projects who may be widely distributed, making it hard for management to get a unified view across all projects.

The software delivery lifecycle (SDLC) relies on the successful flow of many different elements, from requirements through to release. It includes high-level business documents and agile user stories right through to the detailed tasks and the source code itself. It incorporates projects, teams and releases, from agile or non-agile backgrounds linking to others in a complex and constantly-changing web of delivery artefacts.

Successful management of this ‘web of delivery’ is essential; only then can companies have complete confidence that what they are releasing to their customers has been appropriately tested against the correct version of the requirements. ‘Defect free’ does not necessarily mean ‘fit for purpose’.

Is change and configuration management just for source code?

The belief persists that software change and configuration management (SCCM) is a source code issue. This belief can lead to a loss of traceability and versioning across all other artefacts – and away from effective software delivery. Of course, SCCM tools can deliver source code control, but this misses the point. By providing a common view into multiple repositories, such as Subversion, these tools have so much more to offer regardless of methodology or platform.

Analysts Forrester Research believe that software delivery efforts should focus on change management ‘from need to delivery and back again’ and that this should be achieved through the use of a change management hub at the heart of the lifecycle. Only then can this mix of tools be synchronized to provide the automated, bi-directional visibility required – a single source of truth for the software delivery organization. That is the real power of a change and configuration management platform.

Learn more about our change and configuration management solutions

StarTeam®

Beyond source control

StarTeam tracks changes to source code, defects and everything important for collaborative software delivery. Control distributed development across your organisation to deliver the best software faster.

StarTeam® – Agile

Agile for all

This is agile planning and tracking at its best. It's open, agile and works the way you want. Help your development teams focus on what is important and deliver the best software, faster.

Fresh thinking in Software Delivery. Agile. Natural. Visual.

Borland Products

Change and configuration management and more

Our world class software development products work across the entire Application Development Lifecycle to transform good software into great software