Manage Versions

Unlike other SCM products that are restricted to the transfer and deployment of sets of components between environments, ARCAD-Skipper brings a much higher level of methodology and structure.

In the ARCAD offering, version control is the underlying foundation for the entire product range.  Above all, this version control applies at the application rather than component level.   Transfers to test and to production take a version number as entry point.  After the transfer to production, the entire application is considered to be at this new version level.

The ARCAD methodology is based on a so-called "pessimistic lock" model.  This means that a component is attached to a version number prior to its modification.   By contrast, in "optimistic lock" systems, any developer can modify a component without taking into account who else may also have allocated the component.  This commonly results in double or triple maintenance branches, leading to multiple source-merge situations later.

With ARCAD-Skipper, a natural hierarchy develops between the ongoing changes.  This considerably reduces the need for code merges.  Moreover, the developer always knows where his Maintenance Reports apply.  More of this, thanks to this hierarchy, the developer ever knows toward which version he has to merge his corrective maintenance.

THE SOLUTION

With ARCAD, this notion of version extends over the entire application lifecycle:

In the initial phases, management by version facilitates the communication with the end-user.  If end-users encounter an error in production, for example, the IT team can then inform them that this will be corrected in a particular version of the application, whose transfer to production is scheduled at a certain date.

In the later phases, the version is fundamental for coordinating the test and documentation teams.   Sets of changes arrive within a precise hierarchy.  They are then duly tested and documented.  Thus the technical documentation is always kept in phase with the application.