From the Editors: The Challenge Of Software Builds
By SD Times News Team
September 15, 2007 —
(Page 1 of 2)
Building software has been a challenge for as long as there have been compilers and linkers. Application life-cycle management suites include build functionality. There are all sorts of stand-alone tools, some commercial, some open source. Recently, spurred not only by the increased size of many software projects, but also by the stringent build requirements of agile methodologies, there’s been an explosion in high-end solutions for turbocharging build management.
Yet, as this issue’s Special Report makes plain, not all the benefits of the new technology have trickled down to where it’s needed most: the development team.
While we applaud the efforts of open source projects and solutions providers in creating new build software, the real challenge will be for development organizations to recognize that they need to invest—not just in tools, but also in people. A build engineer, development managers maintain, can be worth her weight in gold, because she makes the entire team more productive, and clears the path for developers and testers to get their jobs done more effectively.
We also urge everyone, from development managers to build management companies, to realize that build automation, while desirable, isn’t easy to set up or maintain. Every situation is different, of course. Some projects are straightforward, with a single language, a concise set of artifacts, and source code in a managed repository. Other projects involve widely heterogeneous systems, distributed teams, overlapping projects, and source code with a variety of licenses. Automated build management can be a savior…but except in simple cases, it’s not plug-and-play.
The overarching message: Don’t neglect build management. While architecture, coding and testing may have higher visibility throughout the application life cycle, they’re meaningless without the proper investment in software build technology and processes. Invest wisely.
Lotus 1-2-3 Macros, All Over Again
Software developers “of a certain age” may remember, with varying degrees of fondness, the release of Lotus 1-2-3, the killer-app spreadsheet for IBM PCs. One of Lotus 1-2-3’s key features was its macro capability, which allowed users to embed fairly sophisticated logic into spreadsheets.
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