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

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

在任何開發環境中成功實施高價值的配置管理流程

隨著IT系統變得越來越複雜且至關重要，有效的配置管理（CM）對組織的成功變得至關重要。使用CM的最佳實踐，IT專業人員可以系統地管理變更，避免由於硬體、軟體或網路的變更而引入的意外問題。現在，今天最佳的CM實踐已經被收集在一個不可或缺的資源中，向您展示如何在任何敏捷或傳統的開發組織中實施它們。

《配置管理最佳實踐》是實用、易於理解和應用的，完全反映了從業人員面臨的日常現實。Bob Aiello和Leslie Sachs全面討論了CM的六個“支柱”：源代碼管理、構建工程、環境配置、變更控制、發布工程和部署。他們演示了如何以支持軟體和系統開發的方式實施CM，滿足SOX和SAS-70等合規規則，預測IEEE/ISO 12207等新興標準，並與ITIL、COBIT和CMMI等現代框架整合。內容包括：

- 使用CM滿足業務目標、合約要求和合規規則
- 通過精益流程和“即時”流程改進提高質量和生產力
- 在沒有有效CM的組織中開始良好
- 實施支持整個開發生命周期的核心CM最佳實踐框架
- 掌握CM的“人”方面：權限調整流程、克服阻力和了解職場心理學
- 設計應用程序以充分利用CM的最佳實踐
- 建立有效的IT控制和合規性
- 管理權衡和成本，避免昂貴的陷阱

《配置管理最佳實踐》是所有關心CM的人的必備資源：從CTO和CIO到開發、QA和項目經理，以及軟體工程師、分析師、測試人員和合規專業人員。

對《配置管理最佳實踐》的讚譽：

“了解變更對於管理變更的任何嘗試都至關重要。Bob Aiello和Leslie Sachs的《配置管理最佳實踐》提供了基本的定義和解釋，以幫助從業人員理解變更及其潛在影響。”
- Mary Lou A. Hines Fritts，密蘇里堪薩斯城大學CIO和副校長學術計劃

“很少有關於軟體配置管理強調人和組織背景在定義和執行有效SCM流程中的角色。Bob Aiello和Leslie Sachs的書將為您提供所需的信息，不僅可以有效地管理變更，還可以管理向更好的SCM流程的過渡。”
- Steve Berczuk，敏捷軟體開發人員，以及《軟體配置管理模式：有效的團隊合作，實用的整合》的作者