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Ovum Evaluates: Configuration Management

by Clive Burrows and Ian Wesley

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With Ovum’s market-leading evaluation service you can:

• understand what CM tools can do for you now and in the future
• assess tool capabilities for supporting Year 2000 and bug fixing projects
• cut the cost of your tool selection and reduce your risk

No one wakes up in the morning with "It’s time to buy a CM tool" at the top of their To Do list.

For most organisations, it takes a foreseeable and avoidable disaster to kick start the process.

With over 50 vendors offering products to meet CM needs, most organisations buy from the first vendor they call.

Don’t let yourself fall into this trap. For a true picture of what CM can do for you, and which product best fits your requirements, you need Ovum Evaluates: Configuration Management.

The symptoms of poor configuration management are familiar. Bugs that have been corrected reappear, previous releases of software are impossible to rebuild, files mysteriously change or disappear altogether.

Time pressures on software development, and the increasing need to manage multiple changes to the same software at the same time, imposed by Year 2000 compliance, EMU requirements and the deregulation of the utilities and telecoms sectors make CM vital.

In addition, the demands of Web support, whether for the management of Web pages or as an underlying technology within your networked system are placing even greater strain on your organisation’s resources.

Controlling what information is published on your Web site is an increasing headache – for the organisation who published Bob Hope’s obituary prematurely, following the death of Frank Sinatra, the result was major embarrassment. For a pharmaceutical company, a similar error could lead to major lawsuits.

Today’s CM tools provide a solution to these problems. Going beyond simple version control, they contribute to the success of projects by:

• automating your development processes
• supporting problem tracking, software maintenance and change
• enabling concurrent development of client-server applications
• speeding up the build process.

Achieving specified quality levels for software development is now a corporate requirement in many commercial organisations. Don’t wait for another IT disaster before you adopt CM.

Ovum Evaluates: Configuration Management is an invaluable, independent software evaluation service for anyone involved in software development. Whether you develop commercial applications or build internal IT systems, Ovum explains what the tools do, and how to select the right one for your needs.

Ovum Evaluates: Configuration Management answers the key CM questions you face, including:

• Why is CM crucial to your business?
• Which tool best meets your requirements and who should be on your shortlist?
• What is the impact of recent changes in product ownership in the CM industry?
• How much need you pay for configuration management?
• How can CM help your organisation ensure Year 2000 compliance?
• How can CM help you manage your Web servers and control development?
• How do today’s CM tools help enforce ISO 9000 & CMM quality standards?

A billion dollar business

CM is already a $1billion business. Over the last 5 years, the market has seen an average year-on-year growth of over 40%. As a result, an increasing number of conglomerates are buying into the market and many of the leading vendors have changed hands and their products have been renamed. CM vendors are increasing the functionality of their CM tools and selling them into new markets such as the Web. You need to know:

• What is the effect of continuing market flux for the user and potential buyer?
• Who are the key players now and how are their products evolving?
• Which new products are likely to develop the most significant market presence over the coming months?
• Which product features are of real value to your business and which are figments of the marketing department’s imagination?

Ovum Evaluates: Configuration Management explores these issues in detail and offers Ovum’s forthright opinion on the impact of these changes on your product selection process. We cut through the hype to give you unbiased analysis from the acknowledged industry experts, helping you to make the right decisions.

The service contains objective and independent evaluations of the leading tools which will enable you to determine which product most closely meets your needs. It provides practical and objective guidance on:

• the state of CM today and how it affects you
• the benefits and risks of choosing your CM tool
• how to develop a comprehensive user specification for your CM tool
• what the market developments and hot topics are, where the CM market is heading and how your strategy should reflect these changes
• how to select and deploy a CM tool, successfully avoiding the pitfalls.

Two options to suit your needs

Decision Maker

Is your organisation embarking on the selection process for new configuration management software? Are you involved in making the decision? If you need to:

• understand the technology and its benefits for your organisation
• make and justify the right product and supplier choice within strict deadlines
• ask the right questions of possible suppliers,

Ovum's Decision Maker package is for you. You will receive:

• All current Product Evaluations – we are continuously updating our evaluations of the leading products in the market so, when you buy, you will receive totally up-to-date evaluations, helping you to make a decision that is right for your current and future needs.
• Guide to the Evaluations – o help you get the most from our detailed evaluations, we provide an "at a glance" guide to the products, the methodology used and the approach taken.
• Summary of the Evaluations – a quick and easy-to-use summary comparing the functionality of all products evaluated, against Ovum’s 10-point criteria – team support, remote development, configuration management, change management, build and release support, process management, Web support, Year 2000 support, usability, administration.
• Everything you need to back up your decision – an overview of CM: What’s hot in the CM market. Key CM concepts, problems and resolutions. Understanding CM: quality, productivity and technology issues. Tool philosophies. Making your CM decision. Step-by-step implementation.

Decision Maker PLUS+

If you need regularly updated product information and market news in order to:

• understand which supplier/product best matches your large-scale requirements
• assess whether your company will benefit from CM software
• understand the strengths and weaknesses of your own products and those of your competitors
  

then Decision Maker PLUS+ is for you. In addition to all the elements of the Decision Maker service, you’ll receive:

• Product Evaluations – continuously updated for a whole year. As new releases become available, we will update our product evaluations to keep them current. We will also evaluate significant new products as they are released. Subscribers to Decision Maker PLUS+ will receive additional evaluations as they become available.
• Annual Market Forecast – Ovum's expert analysts forecast market development, predicting how sections of the market will grow or decline, and identifying the key factors behind this movement. Ovum's Annual Forecast provides you with the insight you need to plan your business strategy.
• Regular Update – Ovum Evaluates: Configuration Management will bring you regular updates on product and market developments to ensure that you will stay informed in this
  fast-moving technology area.
• Telephone enquiry service – speak directly to the Ovum Evaluates: Configuration Management analyst team for additional information
  and advice when you need it.

Evaluations

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CCC/Harvest	PLATINUM technology
Change Man	SERENA Software International
ClearCase	Rational
Continuus	Continuus
Enabler blue	Softlab
Endevor for MVS	Computer Associates
Perforce	Perforce
PVCS	Micro Focus
PVCS Dimensions	Micro Focus
Razor	Visible Software
Source Integrity	MKS
StarTeam	StarBase
TRUEchange	TRUEsoftware
Visual Age TeamConnection	IBM

Who should use the report?

Project managers
who need to choose the right CM tool for their software project

Departmental managers
who need to develop the business case for investment in CM

IT directors
who need to understand the central role of CM in risk reduction

CM managers
who need up-to-date information on the leading tools

Web masters
who need to understand how CM tools help to manage the development of increasingly complex Web sites

Developers
who need to understand how to use CM tools

Systems integrators
who need to understand the advantages of using CM tools in large projects

Tool vendors
who need to catch up on what is happening in the CM marketplace

Quality managers
who need to establish how their quality standards can be enforced.

Your editorial team

Evaluator:
Clive Burrows is a Principal Consultant for Ovum with 30 years' experience in the computer industry, in both software production and sales management. An internationally known expert on configuration management, Clive is principal author of Ovum's five authoritative publications in this area. He also regularly undertakes project management and consultancy work, advising customers on software tool selection and introduction.

Prior to working with Ovum, Clive worked for EDS where he was Production Director of a large software engineering group developing tools for safety critical markets.

Editor:
Ian Wesley is Director of IT Analysis at Ovum with over 25 years’ experience in the computer industry. He is responsible for the management of Ovum research and consulting in Application Development, Business Applications, Decision Support, Customer Facing Systems, E-commerce and Infrastructure & Enabling Technologies. Ian is the author of The Future of the Database Market and Objects in Use: Meeting Business Needs and has contributed to all of the Ovum Evaluates: Configuration Management series of reports. Prior to joining Ovum he was Director of Software Engineering for a leading UK software house.