In his recent IEEE Software column, “Ship Effortlessly” J.B. Rainsberger has a gem:
I start each project with two rules: all source files must be in a version control repository, and the build must be fully automated at all times.
Does your project follow these rules? If not, what would you have to do?
It's worth the time to invest to make sure you know which sources are which. And if you automate the build and it still takes “too long,” you can measure what's too long and you can determine which actions to take.
Labels: build, project management
Maybe I’m just young and naive (I’ve only been a professional software developer for about 8 years), but I’ve had the good fortune never to work on a project where these two rules aren’t followed. I just assume things always happen that way now.
Are there really still projects started in 2007 that don’t follow these rules?
Actually, now I think of it, I was brought into one project where I asked, “So where do I check the code out from?”, and it was explained to me that they just emailed the source code to each other. So that was the first thing I implemented before I even tried to look at the code.
Graeme, I’m with you, but sadly, plenty of projects don’t follow this advice. It amazes me every time I see it, every time one of my consultant friends tells me about seeing it, but it happens. Incomprehensible, I know.