Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
Scenario: “Did You Get the Memo?”
There are many different scenarios for this risk; here's just one.
Evelyn (Manager):
What are you working on, Noah?
Noah (Tester):
I'm waiting for the latest build to be deployed to QA in
order to start testing.
Evelyn:
The latest build was deployed to the test server two days ago.
Didn't you hear?
Noah:
No, I've been out of the office the past few days.
Solution
To mitigate this risk, we installed and configured a CruiseControl CI
server on our projects with the automated mechanism that sends
e-mails to affected parties when a build fails. In addition, we added
SMS notifications so that we received text messages on our mobile
phones, in case we didn't have access to e-mail. We installed auto-
mated agents that checked the availability of the servers on a regular
basis. For examples and more information, see Chapter 9.
Scenario: Inability to Visualize Software
On one project, we were making enhancements and modifying exist-
ing software. However, we had no reverse-engineering tool that was
showing us the big picture: a model of the classes and relationships. If
there was an up-to-date class diagram we could reference, we would
have been better able to determine repetition of behavior or incorrect
structure, and thereby reduce ineffective decisions.
Maile (Developer):
Hi. I'm new to the project and I'd like to review
the design. Are there any UML or other diagrams I can see?
Allie (Developer):
Grr. We don't do the UML here. All you have to do
is read the code. If you can't read the code, then maybe you don't
belong here.
Maile:
That's okay; I was just hoping I could see the big picture and
determine the overall architecture rather than slowly interrogating the
code. I'm more of a visual person.
