Software Configuration Management Strategies and Rational Clearcase: A Practical Introduction (Object Technology Series) (Paperback)

In software development, change is inevitable. Successful projects deal well with change -- increasingly, through the use of sophisticated Software Configuration Management (SCM) tools and techniques. Now, there's a complete guide to both the SCM discipline and the field's #1 tool, Rational ClearCase®. Software Configuration Management Strategies and Rational ClearCase® covers every aspect of implementing SCM with ClearCase, demonstrating exactly how to use these tools to avoid cost overruns, stay on schedule, and enhance software quality. Brian White begins by introducing the motivation for Software Configuration Management, its key concepts, and how SCM tools can be applied to address the challenges encountered as software projects grow in size and complexity. White walks through establishing an initial SCM environment, managing projects with ClearCase, and understanding the iterative ClearCase process of "integration, build test, and baseline." Readers will learn how to use Rational ClearCase to address today's most widespread software management challenges, from defect tracking, to managing geographically distributed teams, to deploying powerful Web applications more quickly.

"This is an incredible book! It should be required reading for every software engineer
and manager in the world. There are so many gems of great advice throughout the book
that I think this is going to be a classic. This is not only a great CM book, but the chapter
on project management makes this a great book on software engineering."
--Bill Hasling

"This book communicates much of the experience, wisdom, and insight that was
acquired along the way to discovering what best practices are
and how to implement/deploy them."
--Brad Appleton

Software Configuration Management (SCM) is an essential software engineering discipline used to manage change in today's complex, fast-paced software development environment. SCM is used during all lifecycle phases and provides a structure for identifying and controlling changes to documentation, requirements, models, code, and Web artifacts such as HTML and XML files. By enabling concurrent change to shared artifacts, SCM enhances the collaboration of project teams, allowing them to produce high-quality products faster.

Software Configuration Management Strategies and Rational ClearCase® is a comprehensive, practical guide, featuring the most popular commercial SCM tool on the market, Rational Software's ClearCase®. The author explains the fundamentals first, and then shows how ClearCase supports the SCM best practices through the Unified Change Management (UCM) model. It demonstrates specifically how ClearCase can be used to facilitate and control change in your software development projects. This book goes beyond the basics and presents more advanced topics that deal with a variety of real-world development scenarios such as managing multiple projects and managing project teams located at different sites.

Highlights:

• Introduces basic concepts and the evolution of SCM tools
• Illustrates ClearCase objects, including the repository, workspaces, and component management
• Provides an overview of the Unified Change Management model
• Illustrates how to create the ClearCase repositories and establish a UCM environment
• Explains how to coordinate parallel work both within a project and between multiple projects
• Explores the issues and approaches to managing geographically distributed development projects
• Compares SCM and Change Request Management
• Provides an essential overview of Rational's ClearQuest ClearCase technology, ClearCase MultiSite, and ClearQuest technologies

Comprehensive, practical, and clearly written, Software Configuration Management Strategies and Rational ClearCase® provides software developers, managers, and technical leaders with the information needed to take full advantage of SCM and ClearCase in the development of software projects.