| Preface | p. xv |
| Acknowledgments | p. xvii |
| The Internet Is a Fabulous Invention, But... | p. 1 |
| The beginnings of maintenance problems | p. 5 |
| The Web crisis consequence | p. 6 |
| The Web changes everything | p. 9 |
| Speed has changed everything | p. 10 |
| Companies that embraced the Web created new opportunities | p. 12 |
| Companies that ignored the Web are paying the price | p. 16 |
| We need Web engineering | p. 18 |
| Companies are busy now | p. 19 |
| The future and some good advice | p. 21 |
| Be proactive and win! | p. 22 |
| An outline of each chapter | p. 22 |
| Why I wrote this book | p. 24 |
| The audience for this book | p. 26 |
| Key messages from this chapter | p. 26 |
| The Nature of the World Wide Web | p. 29 |
| The Internet rules! | p. 30 |
| The beauty and potential of the Web | p. 31 |
| The phases of Web acceptance | p. 34 |
| Initial focus for companies concerning their Web systems | p. 36 |
| Mistakes are made too easily and are very costly | p. 37 |
| The Web crisis | p. 40 |
| What is driving the Web crisis? | p. 42 |
| Web systems can be very complex | p. 44 |
| Web system architecture and terminology | p. 48 |
| Nine key Web crisis challenges | p. 52 |
| Speed of change challenge | p. 52 |
| Variant explosion challenge | p. 54 |
| Dynamic content challenge | p. 56 |
| Process support challenge | p. 58 |
| Performance effect challenge | p. 60 |
| Scalability challenge | p. 61 |
| Outsourcing challenge | p. 61 |
| Politics challenge | p. 62 |
| Immaturity challenge | p. 63 |
| Summary of the nine challenges | p. 64 |
| Signs of a crisis point | p. 65 |
| The nature of Web programming | p. 65 |
| Key messages from this chapter | p. 68 |
| Understanding the Many Views of Configuration Management | p. 73 |
| Configuration management is configuration management regardless of object type | p. 74 |
| The essence of configuration management: Key notions and terms | p. 78 |
| An everyday example | p. 78 |
| The old view and the new view of configuration management | p. 80 |
| Typical software development and maintenance life cycles | p. 81 |
| Software engineering models | p. 82 |
| The value and benefits of configuration management | p. 83 |
| Business and technical benefits | p. 85 |
| Signs of a configuration management problem | p. 87 |
| What drives companies to a configuration management solution | p. 88 |
| How success drives companies to configuration management | p. 89 |
| Unified view of configuration management | p. 93 |
| The eight functional areas of software configuration management | p. 94 |
| Version and configuration control | p. 96 |
| Configuration item structuring | p. 97 |
| Construction of configurations | p. 98 |
| Change management | p. 98 |
| Teamwork support | p. 100 |
| Process management | p. 101 |
| Auditing | p. 101 |
| Status reporting | p. 102 |
| Key decisions companies must make, or mistakes I see too often | p. 102 |
| Key messages from this chapter | p. 103 |
| The Automation of Configuration Management | p. 107 |
| Automated, not manual, configuration management | p. 109 |
| Spectrum of configuration management tools | p. 109 |
| Not all configuration management tools are the same | p. 111 |
| CM for Web teams | p. 112 |
| Lightweight versus heavyweight tools | p. 114 |
| Dynamic content | p. 115 |
| Component library management | p. 116 |
| What the configuration management vendors are doing | p. 116 |
| What is the best configuration management tool? | p. 118 |
| Enterprise-wide solution or project-specific solution? | p. 119 |
| Relationship to other disciplines and tools | p. 121 |
| Concepts, or architectural elements, in configuration management tools | p. 124 |
| Versions | p. 124 |
| Repository | p. 127 |
| Workspaces | p. 127 |
| System models | p. 128 |
| Builds | p. 128 |
| Relationships | p. 128 |
| Change requests | p. 129 |
| Change life cycles | p. 129 |
| Change sets | p. 129 |
| Processes | p. 130 |
| Tasks | p. 130 |
| Audit trail | p. 131 |
| The death and resurrection of the configuration management industry | p. 131 |
| Key messages from this chapter | p. 132 |
| Configuration Management Tool Selection and Deployment | p. 135 |
| Configuration management opens up a can of worms | p. 137 |
| Size matters, but it does not change how adoption is done | p. 137 |
| Quick and dirty adoption or methodical adoption? | p. 138 |
| The good, the bad, and the ugly about adoption | p. 140 |
| Why companies fail at adopting a configuration management solution | p. 141 |
| The model of the configuration management solution | p. 143 |
| Sequence of steps in the configuration management solution | p. 146 |
| Select teams | p. 147 |
| Create the sponsorship strategy | p. 150 |
| Capture the status of configuration management today | p. 151 |
| Define the configuration management vision | p. 152 |
| Specify the configuration management benefits | p. 152 |
| Assess readiness to change | p. 153 |
| Define configuration management requirements | p. 154 |
| Do risk management | p. 156 |
| Define the selection method | p. 157 |
| Make the strategic decisions | p. 158 |
| Submit the request for proposal to the vendors | p. 158 |
| Conduct candidate tool demonstrations | p. 159 |
| Pick the finalist tool(s) | p. 160 |
| Develop a CM plan or describe CM processes | p. 160 |
| Do proof-of-concept pilot(s) | p. 162 |
| Pick the CM tool | p. 165 |
| Complete risk mitigation | p. 165 |
| Schedule roll-out | p. 166 |
| Train users | p. 166 |
| Prepare the CM tool | p. 167 |
| Manage resistance | p. 167 |
| Gather lessons learned | p. 171 |
| How long are the tool selection and adoption going to take? | p. 172 |
| ROI and useful metrics | p. 173 |
| How can we recover from tool adoption failure, or turn "shelfware" into "UseWare"? | p. 176 |
| The value of configuration management vendors | p. 177 |
| The big gap regarding standards | p. 180 |
| Should the tool follow the process or should the process follow the tool? | p. 181 |
| Key messages from this chapter | p. 182 |
| Case Studies in Configuration Management Automation of Web Systems | p. 185 |
| What I did | p. 186 |
| The messages and best practices | p. 186 |
| Case study: Carclub.com | p. 189 |
| Its CM system and environment | p. 189 |
| CM process | p. 190 |
| Minimizing mistakes in publishing | p. 191 |
| CM adoption and benefits | p. 191 |
| The evolving CM solution | p. 191 |
| Messages and lessons learned | p. 192 |
| Case study: eCampus.com | p. 192 |
| Configuration management goals | p. 193 |
| Development and maintenance life cycles | p. 193 |
| Managing changes | p. 194 |
| Messages and lessons learned | p. 195 |
| Case study: EDS | p. 196 |
| The nature of the CM solution | p. 197 |
| Creation layer | p. 197 |
| Collection layer | p. 198 |
| CM layer | p. 199 |
| Compilation and distribution layer | p. 199 |
| Deployment layer | p. 199 |
| Configuration items | p. 200 |
| Configuration item life cycle | p. 201 |
| Managing changes to client Web sites | p. 202 |
| Adoption of the CM solution | p. 203 |
| Evolution of its CM solution | p. 203 |
| Messages and lessons learned | p. 203 |
| Case study: Lockheed Martin Aeronautical Systems | p. 204 |
| The environment and CM goals | p. 204 |
| CM processes | p. 205 |
| Evolution of its CM solution | p. 205 |
| Messages and lessons learned | p. 206 |
| Case study: Lycos | p. 206 |
| Messages and lessons learned | p. 209 |
| Case study: NASD | p. 210 |
| NASD's goals for its CM solution | p. 210 |
| CM infrastructure | p. 210 |
| CM processes | p. 211 |
| Change management | p. 211 |
| Web content support | p. 214 |
| Problems it was having and benefits that CM brought it | p. 215 |
| Further CM evolution | p. 216 |
| Adoption of the CM solution | p. 216 |
| Messages and lessons learned | p. 218 |
| Case study: OneSource Information Services Inc. | p. 219 |
| Problems solved and benefits gained | p. 219 |
| Infrastructure | p. 220 |
| Workflow and change management | p. 220 |
| Deployment | p. 221 |
| Messages and lessons learned | p. 221 |
| Case study: USinternetworking | p. 222 |
| Problems solved and benefits offered by its CM solution | p. 222 |
| Change management | p. 224 |
| Company organizational layout | p. 225 |
| Messages and lessons learned | p. 226 |
| Appendix A | p. 229 |
| Configuration management questionnaire | p. 230 |
| Categories of configuration management requirements | p. 240 |
| Categories of risks | p. 240 |
| Process description | p. 244 |
| Types of process or process levels | p. 245 |
| Example of a CM process model | p. 245 |
| Description of the roles in the states | p. 247 |
| Description of the roles in the transitions | p. 247 |
| Description of the states | p. 247 |
| Template for configuration management status report | p. 253 |
| Executive summary | p. 253 |
| People's understanding or definition of CM | p. 254 |
| Problems found in our development and maintenance practices and tools | p. 254 |
| Goals or visions people have for a better solution | p. 254 |
| Why CM is important to this company | p. 254 |
| Recommendations regarding CM | p. 254 |
| Template for risk management plan | p. 255 |
| Executive summary | p. 255 |
| Detailed description of the risks | p. 256 |
| Lessons learned | p. 257 |
| Template for a pilot project plan | p. 258 |
| Success criteria and expectations | p. 258 |
| Why was this project chosen to be the pilot? | p. 258 |
| Scope of the pilot project | p. 259 |
| Schedule | p. 259 |
| Risks and concerns | p. 259 |
| Process models | p. 259 |
| Training materials | p. 259 |
| Vendor interaction | p. 261 |
| Lessons learned and data captured | p. 261 |
| About the Author | p. 263 |
| Index | p. 265 |
| Table of Contents provided by Syndetics. All Rights Reserved. |