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

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

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.