Selected Product:
| Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration (Software Patterns Series)
Paperback
Author: Stephen P. Berczuk, Brad Appleton
Publisher: Addison-Wesley Professional
Release Date: 2003-11-14
ISBN-10: 0201741172
ISBN-13: 9780201741179
List Price: $52.99
Average Customer Rating:
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Software Configuration Management Handbook, Second Edition
ISBN-10: 1580538827
ISBN-13: 9781580538824
List Price:$89.00
Continuous Integration: Improving Software Quality and Reducing Risk (Addison-Wesley Signature Series)
ISBN-10: 0321336380
ISBN-13: 9780321336385
List Price:$44.99
Practical Perforce
ISBN-10: 0596101856
ISBN-13: 9780596101855
List Price:$39.95
Configuration Management Principles and Practice (Agile Software Development Series)
ISBN-10: 0321117662
ISBN-13: 9780321117663
List Price:$54.99
The Build Master: Microsoft's Software Configuration Management Best Practices (Addison-Wesley Microsoft Technology Series)
ISBN-10: 0321332059
ISBN-13: 9780321332059
List Price:$44.99
Configuration Management Principles and Practice
ISBN-10: 0321117662
ISBN-13: 0076092018506
List Price:$54.99
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Summaries and Customer Reviews are supplied by Amazon.com
Stereotypes portray software engineers as a reckless lot, and stereotypes paint software configuration management (SCM) devotees as inflexible. Based on these impressions, it is no wonder that projects can be riddled with tension! The truth probably lies somewhere in between these stereotypes, and this book shows how proven SCM practices can foster a healthy team-oriented culture that produces better software. The authors show that workflow, when properly managed, can avert delays, morale problems, and cost overruns. A patterns approach (proven solutions to recurring problems) is outlined so that SCM can be easily applied and successfully leveraged in small to medium sized organizations. The patterns are presented with an emphasis on practicality. The results speak for themselves: improved processes and a motivated workforce that synergize to produce better quality software.
How To Get on the Agile Bus
| Customer Rating:  | | If you have source control and a continuous build then you don't need this book. This book has two chapters telling you why and when to branch in CVS. Ten years ago, I would have found this book useful. |
Real-world SCM for real-world developers
| Customer Rating: | This is an outstanding book for software development teams that see software configuration management as a means to an end, not the end itself. The author immediately establishes credibility with me when he says in the preface "Software configuration management is not what I do. I am not a software configuration management person...I build software systems" Exactly! It's obvious throughout the book that the authors develop software systems and use SCM to effectively support their development effort, not the other way around.
The format of the book is very consistent and thus very easy to read. Each pattern has its own chapter and clearly identifies the problem and the solution in a particular context. It doesn't waste any paper and is a quick read and has been a reference I continue to use on a regular basis. The authors have taken something that can quickly become complex and make it easy to understand.
The authors have a very natural writing style and effectively use sidebars to bring their real-world experiences to the pattern. This book is a must read for software developers. I wish I could give it six stars.
Given my background in CI, I was most drawn to the Mainline, Private Workspace, Repository, Private System Build, Integration Build, Regression Test, and Third Party Codeline patterns. But, there is something for all developers and teams here. |
Very little useful information
| Customer Rating: | I am surprised to apparently be the only person to find this book disappointing. Let me go into the details.
Physical book.
I rarely comment on the physical book but I need to mention the bad printing. Many pictures and graphs in the book are not printed correctly. Instead they appear as gray rectangles.
Content.
The book is divided into three parts: an introduction, the Software Configuration Management (SCM) patterns, and appendices with information on SCM systems.
The introduction does not provide useful information. The author spends time defining generic concepts (such as 'organization') without bringing any insights to configuration management. I assume that part was written to fill in the book. You can safely skip it.
The patterns are the meat of the book. Some of the patterns are useful and nicely presented. For example, the need for a mainline and how to branch before a release are the two that stand out. They are good advice. Unfortunately most patterns are not explained appropriately. For example, the author presents several patterns related to tests (unit tests, smoke tests, regression tests). However the patterns do not properly make the connection to configuration management. For example: what are the best practices to integrate tests with SCM? The answer is not in the book. Overall I felt let down by the patterns. If you have some experience working in a group using a SCM, you won't learn anything new.
The final part about the various SCM systems is again a filler with little usefulness. You will learn a lot more by reading the manual of the SCM you are using.
There are several topics I wish had been included:
- Topology: how best to distribute the SCM system.
- Buddy builds: what are the best practices related to buddy builds, i.e., building before making a check-in.
I was looking forward to reading this book. Now that I have, I feel very much let down. The useful information could be contained in less than 10 pages. |
Mileage working with software development teams
| Customer Rating: | Objective, clear and simple. War stories told by a intellectually savvy trooper are not complex. They tell us about complex scenarios in a simple way. Field experience. It's what this book is all about. Not about procedures, but practices based on well known, or not so, patterns, for you to use with your teams to win your battles. It's up to you. Think about them. Use them wisely.
Sorry for the military metaphor but seemed to me appropriate.
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Great resource for leads, managers, and build masters
| Customer Rating: | There really aren't too many books that cover the subject of SCM and this one does a very good job of overviewing all the issues. Although he does give examples and opinions on different tools and platforms, the book is not written for any particular one. I especially like the fact that he is coming from a developer's perspective in the sense that the need for SCM has been brought upon him, like most of us, and it's not something he initially persued. Things like source control directory structure, versioning, builds, build policies, etc. are issues that are eventually dealt with by tech leads and/or tech managers but few usually have any formal experience with it. Anyone who has been in a small or large development shop knows how critical these issues are to the entire development process.
I also bought Build Master by Vincent Maraia which is also an excellent book but I felt that his position has always been specifically a build master and the book dealt with very large build projects that had dedicated teams. In constrast, Berczuk and Appleton's book is more broad so that a lone developer/manager assigned to the daunting tasks of setting up SCM environments can achieve this and have a general guide for holding down the fort. |
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