- You can now fix and stabilize successive software versions, so you can archive effectively.
- Careful management avoids you falling into the trap of creating anomalies due to a too-short regression testing cycle for transfer to production.
- Versioning allows team coordination and ensures that simultaneous projects will not experience regression problems later in the project.
Coordinating Developments
The basic need that always comes up in discussion of a tool like ARCAD-Skipper is the necessity of avoiding application regression when there are numerous simultaneous development projects, in parallel with an ongoing corrective maintenance activity. One notable example is an ARCAD prospect (now a client, of course), who lost six months of corrective maintenance after implementing its Y2K adaptations.
With ARCAD-Skipper, you have a safe, effective resource that constantly monitors double and triple maintenance on the same components. Skipper establishes strict rules and validation systems that really do guarantee code non-regression.
Stability
The challenge for a development team is to create a balance between reactivity and reliability. Too much reliability can hide a lack of application development. This creates a risk that applications will no longer be on the same track as a company’s needs. The reverse issue is that excessive untested code change conceals permanent application instability--instability that users find increasingly unwelcome.
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By setting up an CM process that is completely based on effective version control, you can allow a high rate of change while ensuring the stability of applications in production.
With time, end users themselves enjoy the benefits of using ARCAD-Skipper. Their applications continue to evolve, but in well-defined steps that are meaningful to them. Users no longer experience sudden, recurring application downtime. Using ARCAD-Skipper, many clients have already told us that they no longer experience this kind of problem.
The ARCAD Solution
In the ARCAD methodology, the concept of version control is the keystone of the entire product. We enable version control for both components and applications. Transfers to test and production are performed with a version number as an entry point. After transfer to production, the complete application is considered to be at this new version level.
ARCAD’s method is based on a pessimistic lock management model. This means that components are attached to a version number before modification. In an optimistic lock model, any developer can modify a component without taking existing assignments into account. Our method is immediately useful in situations where double and triple maintenance efforts exist.
With ARCAD-Skipper, a natural hierarchy is established between developments in progress. Developers always know where Maintenance Reports should be targeted.
Version control with ARCAD
Too many IT professionals restrict this concept to development. However, it also allows coordination between developers in the development phases. With ARCAD, version control influences the entire application life cycle:
Upstream, ARCAD allows easier communication with users. For example, if a user detects an anomaly in production, the IT team can then let him know that the anomaly will be corrected in a specific version of the application, which will be transferred to production on a specific date.
Downstream, versioning is essential for coordinating testing and documentation teams. Batches of changes come to the teams in a specific hierarchy, and are then tested and documented. In this way, technical documentation is always in phase with the application.
What’s more, if you need to deploy your modifications on multiple machines or partitions, with ARCAD you can just monitor your application version levels on your sites, rather than having to go to the component level for this job.
With our unique application-oriented version control, the ARCAD-Skipper solution can even be of use for companies that do not have a development team. Companies use software, so they receive new versions from their supplier. The ARCAD versioning system integrates these external modifications and provides the same level of coordination between everyone involved in the change. For more information, read the Software Reception page.
Functionality Details
Any change process begins with the opening of a set of modifications identified by a version number. When the set of modifications are transferred to production, the application is promoted to that new version level.
This versioning technique ensures:
- Component allocation by a user in a given version (the check-out principle)
- Automatic transfer of support file(s) in a development environment
- Automatic storage of all changes made
- Maintenance Report referencing
- Transfer to test and production
Component Archiving
With our integrated archiving system, you can now conserve as many previous component versions as you wish online (sources and/or objects).
With the ARCAD Repository, you can consult and view the version log of each component. You can even retrieve them if needed. Since developers no longer need to trouble operators to perform this job, the Repository can lead to substantial time savings.
Component Checkout
Checkout allocates a component to a developer until transfer to production. It is a common basis for all version managers. Checkout itself is allocation of a component to a version by a developer. The component will only be released during the final development phase, which is transfer to production. This system gives developers a precise vision of modifications in progress, and lets them coordinate modifications between developers to avoid system regression problems. This function also enables the unique control system for parallel maintenance and the possible component merges that can result.
Monitoring Component Coding
You can define your own naming rules for your components. The system will guarantee for you that these rules are respected.
Standard Header in the Source Code
ARCAD-Skipper allows automatic setup of a standard header in the source code. The header collects the different modifications the component has undergone, and references the impacted code lines.
Conclusion
With a good version control system, you can establish a rigorous process that will provide you with both improved productivity in application development and increased stability for your production environment.
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