Configuration Management: Controlling Software Changes

More complex, distributed applications and more users mean a greater chance for error. That's why businesses need better change management products.

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By Kate Maddox
Issue date: March 25, 1996

Minutes after a new release of continental bank's in-house trading systems went into operation, something was obviously wrong. A feature that was supposed to calculate interest rates on a stock derivative product wasn't working. So the new clien t-server application had to be pulled and an old derivatives application reinstalled. It took the Chicago bank's eight-person application-development team two weeks to fix the problem and re-release the software. If the developers had been able to work on just the faulty portion of the derivatives application, then the bank would not have had to shut down the system.

Indeed, more developers are finding themselves in the same situation as the Continental Bank team when it comes to managing software development. As the complexity of distributed applications increases, and the number of people working on the same system grows larger, there's a pressing need for change management (CM) products that track the alterations made to software during development. Without sufficient tracking and management throughout a new project's life cycle, there can be costly delays in a system rollout.

"The more time it takes to develop the application, the more money you're losing," says Dan Meeks, VP and manager of trading systems for Bank of America in New York, which purchased Continental in 1994, a few months after the software management problem bogged down the derivative trading system.

The concept of change management-sometimes called configuration management or version control-isn't new; it's been around since the heyday of the mainframe. With the advent of minicomputers and midrange systems, two rudimentary version control systems for the Unix environment were created: Source Code Control System (SCCS) by AT&T Bell Labs, and Revision Control System (RCS) by Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind. Both are still bundled with most Unix operating systems. Over the past few years, however, more sophisticated CM systems have emerged with features that manage all phases of software development within distributed environments.

These additional functions tend to include three features in addition to version control. They are build management, which monitors the creation of distribu table software with documentation; workspace management, which organizes the development environment; and process control, which defines and manages development methodology. "As applications become more complex, you need guidance in the stages [of] the development process," says Dave Kelly, director of the application development service at Hurwitz Consulting Group Inc. in Newton, Mass.

The technology is expanding beyond version control. Several vendors are creating links between CM and broader management products. Others are expanding CM tools to manage World Wide Web software development. The leading Unix-oriented CM system is Atria Software Inc.'s ClearCase. Continuus Software's Continuus/CM, Platinum Technology's CCC/Harvest, and SQL Software's Process Configuration Management System are other important products. There are also several CM systems with strong roots in the PC and LAN version-control market, including Intersolv's PVCS, Microsoft's Visual SourceSafe, and Mortice Kern System s' Integrity Engine. These are increasing their functionality and are now available in Unix versions. Also, Sun Microsystems markets SparcWorks/TeamWare, which is based on the SCCS version control system, for the Solaris operating system.

But because software development is seen as a separate function from network operations, other enterprise management vendors- including Computer Associates, Hewlett-Packard, and IBM-for the most part do not include software configuration management in their products. Instead, they offer hardware CM tools. "There is little overlap between software configuration management systems and hardware configuration management features that you get in the leading system management products," says Tim Wilson, a senior consultant at Decisis Inc., a Sterling, Va., networking consultancy.

In almost all cases, companies seek more control. IS officials at Rockwell Space Operations Co. in Houston, which is responsible for developing the software used for mission pl anning and support for NASA's space shuttle program, wanted to find a configuration-management tool that would allow Rockwell to build systems with strict development control. "We needed to track processes throughout the life cycle," says Jeff Bloom, a senior software engineer for Unisys, the McLean, Va., integrator that served as a subcontractor on the project. "Developers are typically in their own worlds during the design, implementation, coding, and testing of software."

Without strict oversight, too much effort would be duplicated. Often, says Bloom, only the programmers know where in the cycle changes were made. Initially, Rockwell's team used SCCS to handle version control for development on Sun SparcStation 10s and 20s. But in three years, the number of developers working on the project had grown to more than 100 from 20, and "the capability of SCCS was not there to support the size of [Rockwell's] team," says Bloom.

To focus on process management, Bloom bought Continuus/CM, at about $4,000 per license. The Continuus system lets developers perform only certain tasks, such as building files at particular stages of development, unless they have been previously authorized to work within a totally different part of the software de- velopment life cycle. "Now we have more knowledge about the status of the software," says Bloom. "We know what's coming down the line for delivery."

Does CM software save money? "I can't say we've really returned on the cost," admits Bloom. "But we're more sure of what we're doing."

Amgen Inc., a biotechnology company in Thousand Oaks, Calif., is another Continuus customer. Amgen, which develops drugs to fight cancer, Parkinson's disease, and other illnesses, uses CM to help it develop software that tracks clinical trial information stored on Oracle and Informix databases on Sun SparcStation 10s and 20s. Without valid information, Amgen "could lose a lot of time and money in getting drugs to market," says Lisa Minkoff, an Amgen senior systems analyst.

More important for Amgen is meeting Food and Drug Administration validation requirements for clinical trials. "You need to guarantee that the data that goes in is the data that goes out," says Minkoff. "Otherwise, the FDA could come in and say, 'Scrap the system.' "

With Continuus/CM, Amgen says it does a much better job of tracking problems and the fixes made to software systems with problems. The company can also track development problems, whether that development takes place at its headquarters or at another Amgen facility in Cambridge, Mass.

The Amgen case illustrates how some CM packages are expanding well beyond the realm of version control. Most leading CM tools now have some problem-tracking capabilities, allowing companies to take a problem that's been detected by a user to be fixed by developers and integrated into future releases. Indeed, problem-tracking had been co nsidered a weak point of CM tools, since (unlike pure change management products) they didn't monitor a system after deployment or track later changes.

"You want to have feedback as problems are dealt with," says Melinda Ballou, a senior analyst at the Meta Group, a research firm in Stamford, Conn. "Coordination across tools lets people have more control."

Further Integration
One company looking at integrating traditional configuration management functions, such as process management, with systems management functions is Platinum, the enterprise management company that late last year acquired Softool Corp., the Goleta, Calif., developer of CCC/Harvest. "Our strategy is to address the full suite of needs across the product life cycle," says Linda Fritzsche, director of marketing for Platinum's application life cycle unit. For example, Platinum has integrated CCC/Harvest with Apriori, its help-desk software that forms part of Platinum's line of systems management tools.

Another hot area is managing the development of Internet applications. One company that's moved aggressively in this area is Mortice Kern Systems, which recently signed a deal that lets Netscape Communications Corp. use MKS' Integrity Engine version control system within its Enterprise Server. MKS hopes its software will help companies manage content that's being developed for Web sites by tracking changes to Web site content, checking files in and out, and controlling access to information.

Microsoft already uses its own Visual SourceSafe to track changes made to more than 10,000 documents on its intranet. The Redmond, Wash., software giant seeks ways to integrate its CM tools with existing Web products, says David Streams, product manager for Visual SourceSafe. "As Web sites mature, the [amount of] content that needs to be managed balloons," he says. "Administration becomes a nightmare."

The Unix players also see the Web as fertile new ground. "We want to be compatible with the Web environment," says Atria president Paul Levine. "Be it Unix, Windows, Fortran, C++, Visual Basic, or Java, you are developing in an environment with lots of pieces. Configuration management is part of your solution."

For Bank of America, which selected Atria's ClearCase as its CM tool, being able to segment the pieces that change during the software development process saves considerable time, says trading systems manager Meeks. Bank of America developers release new products every two to four weeks instead of their previous two to four months. The reason, says Meeks, is tight control of the development process. With control comes speed.

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