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- Path: sparky!uunet!spool.mu.edu!darwin.sura.net!paladin.american.edu!howland.reston.ans.net!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!menudo.uh.edu!sugar!claird
- From: claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird)
- Subject: Re: When do we inspect [getting LONG]
- Organization: NeoSoft Communications Services -- (713) 684-5900
- Date: Tue, 22 Dec 1992 14:59:07 GMT
- Message-ID: <Bzo1ML.GK6@NeoSoft.com>
- References: <BzJK8L.6r0@NeoSoft.com> <1992Dec21.184224.21056@den.mmc.com> <1992Dec21.215642.5706@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com>
- Lines: 106
-
- In article <1992Dec21.215642.5706@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com> shanks@saifr00.cfsat.honeywell.com (Mark Shanks) writes:
- >In article <1992Dec21.184224.21056@den.mmc.com> jhull@vulcan-gw.den.mmc.com writes:
- >
- >>In article 6r0@NeoSoft.com,
- >>claird@NeoSoft.com (Cameron Laird) writes:
- >>cl> I assert: source code should go into the CM system
- >>cl> from its first day. ... Some object
- >>cl> that checking in source is too much overhead; for
- >>cl> me, that's only a symptom that the check-in process
- >>cl> isn't yet adequate. Coders should *want* the benefits
- .
- .
- .
- >>Au contraire. Since we are not yet, and may never be, at a
- >>point where we all think alike and work alike, I suggest that
- >>each programmer should be allowed to do his or her own work
- >>in whatever manner allows them to be most productive. If
- .
- .
- >>I suggest that a unit of code should enter a "Software
- >>Development Library" at the time when the individual team
- >>member has finished coding and unit testing it
- >
- >>I further suggest that there should be a "Project Software
- >>Library" controlled and managed by a Software Quality
- >>Assurance group/team/organization, and that Unit A must be
- >>entered in the PSL prior to being released for use by Team
- >>B.
- >
- >I believe Cameron misunderstood me, or perhaps has a different
- >working model for "CM" than I do. I was referring to a simple
- >"vault" type of tool; no regression testing, no semantic analyses,
- >no nothing but a freeze on the code and enforced procedures to
- >check it out and make changes.
- >
- >I guess Jeff's description of a "SW Development Library" is
- >less restrictive than a typical CM system. I can understand
- >a customer's desire for tracking changes, but IMHO, taking a
- >"snapshot" at CDR time accomplishes that function without
- >incurring the truly prodigious overhead entailed by some
- >CM systems (check out package, make changes, inspect, fill
- >out software change request (SCR) form, meet with configuration
- >control board, edit SCR, check package back in, get change from
- >customer, goto line 1). I'm on a program using Ada, heading a
- >team of 10 software designers producing well over 200 Ada
- >packages and close to 20,000 LOC. Multiply that by 30 or 40
- >such teams and see how much time will be spent on CM alone.
- >Why start that process any sooner than necessary?
- .
- .
- .
- This has been interesting.
-
- Some of this must be that we have different models
- of CM. I've received a number of replies, and they're
- ALL over the map. It's not even violent agreement vs.
- violent disagreement, but people simply have much,
- much different ideas about CM. This has been good for
- me, personally, to learn about the range of CM prac-
- tices in our industry.
-
- I'm not sure what our next step is. The model you
- describe sounds to me like a nightmare; on the other
- hand, some of the people who agree with you that CM
- can wait until near the end are friends of mine, and
- some are objectively more successful than I, so I
- see no easy resolutions. I'll try to make two points
- in closing:
- 1. in discussions of CM, someone often echoes Mr.
- Hull's observation that
-
- Since we are not yet, and may never be,
- at a point where we all think alike and
- work alike, I suggest that each programmer
- should be allowed to do his or her own work
- in whatever manner allows them to be most
- productive.
-
- I suspect that our different models of CM must
- hinge on this theme, because I see our personal
- styles as acting in completely orthogonal
- dimensions to those CM constrains, but this ap-
- pears to be a big issue for others. Is there
- someone who can explain this so that both sides
- can understand what's going on?
- 2. The inflexible system Mr. Shanks describes is,
- I know, favored by some knowledgeable and exper-
- ienced engineers. Mr. Shanks, are you saying
- that you approve of the way it is, or that you're
- stuck with something you see as suboptimal, and
- therefore you don't wish to "start that process
- any sooner than necessary"? If the former,
- please fill in a few more of the details on how
- such a system is a benefit. It would make me
- feel as though I'm in a trailer factory, say,
- welding away on my assigned joints, and I notice
- that I need more light on my worktable to jig up
- the pieces carefully. I get the feeling that,
- in the factory where you work, I'd have to call
- a meeting of the union first. Is there no
- cheaper way for me to improve my process?
- --
-
- Cameron Laird
- claird@Neosoft.com (claird%Neosoft.com@uunet.uu.net) +1 713 267 7966
- claird@litwin.com (claird%litwin.com@uunet.uu.net) +1 713 996 8546
-