Build & Release Management Systems


Most companies today have very decentralized, uncontrolled policies and practices in place to manage the build and release process. So while organizations have invested substantially in source code configuration management systems and automated testing systems, the bridge between them has largely been left to manual and ad-hoc practices.

Does this sound familiar? You work for a large hi-tech manufacturer builds devices that contain embedded control systems and a Windows user interface to control the machines. The overall development team consists of teams in three locations in different parts of the world, including an outsourced testing team. To make matters more complex, one team is developing the user interface in C# using Microsoft Visual Studio .NET and Team Foundation Server, while another team develops in Java and uses IBM Rational development tools. Dissimilar tools over decentralized, mulitple locations. Each developmental site is responsible for a piece of the final product, but all must work together before the product can be shipped. To be successful, all of these teams must collaborate globally. This system is a headache that many businesses face and is fraught with pitfalls and opportunities for lost productivity.

We offer a unique program that centralizes the control and automates much of the repetative steps, eliminating errors and frustration. Once our system is set up it allows our clients these benefits:

• Collaboration is fostered by group participation in creating the "master" workflow to meet the needs of all stakeholders. This creates higher levels of communication, and buy-in among the team and avoids finger pointing that result when things go wrong.
  
  
• The environment can be much more easily secured. Role-based access on a need-to-use basis can be implemented as part of the central management infrastructure.



• Global visibility is greatly improved. All of the information about the build and release process is logged centrally, so there is one place to go to find out what went into a release candidate and the results of any build. This central repository of information about the build process is also a built-in audit source and reporting repository.



• The entire process is streamlined by removing many of the manual steps and handoffs between phases that are common in today's environments. All of this results in more code/build/test iterations and faster release cycles.



• Multi-site project developments that are synchronized, with clear command and control, and a minimum of lost time and effort due to confusion.