Configuration Management Best Practices: Practical Methods that Work in the Real World
About this ebook
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.
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About the author
Bob Aiello is the editor-in-chief for CM Crossroads and a consultant specializing in software process improvement, including software configuration and release management. Mr. Aiello has more than 25 years of experience as a technical manager in several top NYC financial services firms where he had companywide responsibility for CM, often providing hands-on technical support for enterprise source code management tools, SOX/Cobit compliance, build engineering, continuous integration, and automated application deployment. Mr. Aiello is the vice chair of the IEEE 828 Standards working group (CM Planning) and is a member of the IEEE Software and Systems Engineering Standards Committee (S2ESC) management board. He is a longstanding member of the steering committee of the NYC Software Process Improvement Network (CitySPIN), where he has served as the chair of the CM SIG. Mr. Aiello holds a master’s degree in industrial psychology from NYU and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and math from Hofstra University.
Leslie Sachs is the COO of Yellow Spider, Inc., which specializes in providing CM-related consulting services that are aligned with the practices described in this book. Ms. Sachs also writes about applying personality to technology endeavors in her column titled Personality Matters. A New York State Certified School Psychologist with more than 20 years of experience, Ms. Sachs has worked in a variety of clinical and business settings where she has provided many effective interventions designed to improve the social and educational functioning of both individuals and groups. Ms. Sachs has a Masters of Science degree in school and community psychology from Pace University and interned in Bellevue Hospital’s famed Psychiatric Center in NYC. A firm believer in the uniqueness of every individual, she has recently done advanced training with Mel Levine’s All Kinds of Minds Institute.
