Further Exploration in Configuration Management

After working on a professor's project and creating my own stack project (link to past post), I thought it would be interesting to collaborate with another classmate using google project hosting and subversion. Usually when I've worked with others in the past, everything is planned out before each person programs or edits code in order to reduce code clashes and redundancy. Configuration management was never a part of these projects and I have to say it was a challenge sometimes. 

A good example of this was when I was working on the codeRuler project with Daniel Tian. He and I would send each other source files that often would not match up with each other, creating problems with the program on a whole. It was rather tricky to figure it all out. Even deciding who would create the final build was a bit confusing as we both had slightly different versions. It would have been nice to see how the workflow would have been affected with configuration management tools.

COLLABORATIVE SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT

For this, I decided to collaborate with Jeho Jung, a fellow classmate also working on his own version of the stack project. After I was added to his project on google project hosting, and he was added to mine, we ventured out to verify each others project. I couldn't believe what happened next.

Upon check out of his source code, the ant verify process resulted in a 'BUILD FAILED.' And if you can imagine, the same thing happened with my code when he ran the verify script on it. I was really, really confused about it all since I swore I had verified it all before hand. However, what I failed to remember was when I slightly edited a test case before check-in. That's what screwed it up for my stack project. Jeho's project had a similar problem but his code had errors mainly from missing test cases.

Since we were working on each others code in pair programming style we each went through each project and fixed the problems accordingly. It all went smoothly and either of us were able to update the others project on google code. It's really cool how it all syncs up. I imported his project into eclipse and updated some of the javadoc comments. Then I checked in the changed files to his project repository and it was all set.

He did the same with my project and after verifying the build, everything was fine. I have to say it was an extremely streamlined process. For one, using CM tools makes working together on a project extremely easy and efficient. We could switch computers and still update the same project simultaneously. The subversion tools built into google project hosting make this super simple. Its great! It is also nice to get automated messages whenever a project you're apart of is changed (through the use of google groups).

INSIGHTS

Collaborative programming with another student really opened my eyes to the simple problems that can occur when programming by yourself. A big surprise for me was having a program that I thought could build successfully fail when another user was checking it. Who knows what sorts of things I could have missed on my own. It's really useful to get another programmer to work with so these things are found and fixed.

Collaborative programming also showed me the importance of using configuration management tools like google project hosting and subversion for development. Code review and production was instantly streamlined with the introduction of these tools. If only I had used these tools while creating the codeRuler program with Daniel Tian. Things could have been done much simpler and more efficiently. Configuration management is essential to collaborative programming projects.

If ever I work in a group setting again, I will not hesitate to use subversion and google project hosting. I'm sure my other classmates would agree. Overall, it really seems to me that the use of configuration management tools along with other tools like those for quality assurance, make for more stable builds and more efficient system. I plan to use them all in the future.