DDJ Whitepapers

SCM Best Practices for Continuous Integration Whitepaper

Continuous integration, while not a new concept, is rapidly being adopted as a key technology process in software development organizations as part of the shift towards Agile methodologies. Coupled with a robust SCM system and the proven best practices engineering managers, quality assurance managers and developers can use continuous integration to improve software quality, reduce costly rework due to broken builds, and thus ultimately increase the business value delivered to customers. This paper introduces the concept of continuous integration and outlines several proven software configuration management (SCM) best practices to consider when implementing continuous integration.

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Extend, Replace, or Convert; which is the best way forward for COBOL Applications?

There are a number of choices when looking at ways to take existing COBOL applications forward. This white paper discusses the most common three options — Extend, Replace, and Convert. It examines the benefits and problems both real and perceived with each option and demonstrates the most cost effective method to modernize applications to address current and future business needs.

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Achieving Rapid Data Recovery for IBM AIX Environments

Many organizations running AIX operating environments on IBM servers need more than just regular tape backups to protect critical applications and other data. Learn the options and strategies for improving AIX protection and recovery, including how EchoStream technology dramatically increases data recovery time and provides continuous data protection (CDP) capabilities that make it possible to recover data to any point in time.

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Tracing Performance Issues to Their Source

Load testing without code-level visibility is like looking for a needle in separate haystacks. To isolate problems and resolve them fast, you need diagnostics built specifically to work under load testing scenarios. Learn the right way to do performance testing — while supporting multiple platforms in real-world conditions.

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Taming Software Quality Complexity with Virtual Lab Automation

Don't let distributed development, SOA and shifting methodologies sabotage software quality... or turn your QA teams into IT managers! Virtualization can provide a better alternative to physical testing. Learn how to get more out of virtualized testing by integrating it within testing processes.

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Mastering the Iteration: An Agile White Paper from Rally

The heartbeat of Agile development is the iteration — the ability of the team to create working, tested, value-delivered code in a short time box — with the goal of producing an increment of potentially shippable code at the end of each iteration. This is a significant challenge for the team, and mastering this skill takes guidance and practice.

In this white paper, Dean Leffingwell describes the basic iteration pattern and the activities that a team engages in to meet this key challenge. This paper is an excerpt from Dean's latest book, Scaling Software Agility: Best Practices for Large Enterprises.

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Improving Software Quality to Drive Business Agility

With greater complexity from technology, software sourcing, compliance, security, and other areas, addressing software defects has never been more challenging. Keeping up with this level of complexity to retain software agility and profitability demands consistent, reenergized, and targeted approaches to quality.

IDC conducted a survey in 2Q08 to explore current practices in, costs of, and attitudes toward software quality. A new white paper "Improving Software Quality to Drove Business Agility", by Melinda-Carol Ballou, IDC Program Director, Application Life-Cycle Management, offers a comprehensive and insightful summary of the survey results. Download the Whitepaper now.

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Test Automation Provides Significant Time Savings

With the availability of test automation solutions, missing deadlines because of inadequate test coverage or slow and tedious manual testing is inexcusable. This white paper highlights results from Seapine Software's Quality-Ready Assessment - a high-level evaluation tool that helps development organizations measure the state of their quality readiness - and explains how test automation significantly improves an organizationıs ability to complete the required levels of testing without adding additional testers, lengthening release cycles, or reducing test coverage.

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Quality Software Development Demands More Than Just Change Management

While the majority of software development organizations use change management solutions, very few capitalize on its full potential. This white paper highlights results from Seapine Software's Quality-Ready Assessment - a high-level evaluation tool that helps development organizations measure the state of their quality readiness - and explains how integrating change management solutions with other systems, like issue tracking, helps software development teams realize significant quality improvements.

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Increase Customer Satisfaction with High Quality Software Best Practices

This Seapine Software white paper proves that given the choice of higher cost, longer delivery time, or poorer quality, customers will choose to protect quality. Seapine Software surveyed nearly 1,000 Software Development and Quality Assurance professionals through the Seapine Software Quality-Ready Assessment and found the top factors driving organizations to focus on application lifecycle management solutions, the priority level companies assign to building quality into their development environment, and the degree to which those organizations complete their application development on time and within budget.

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Test Case Management is Vital to Improving Software Quality

Adoption of test case management solutions has helped many organizations avoid compliance risks and cost overruns. This white paper highlights results from Seapine Software's Quality-Ready Assessment - a high-level evaluation tool that helps development organizations measure the state of their quality readiness - and explains how integrating test case management with issue tracking significantly increases proficiency and productivity.

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Effective Issue Tracking Improves Software Quality

Despite the maturity of the software industry, many companies still overlook the value of electronic issue management. This white paper highlights results from Seapine Software's Quality-Ready Assessment - a high-level evaluation tool that helps development organizations measure the state of their quality readiness - and explains how a packaged tracking solution allows organizations to shift resources to revenue-producing development while streamlining processes and providing a better understanding of the quality of each release.

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