🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Apr14.175628.6961@lotus.com>, pedersen@lotus.com (Michael Pedersen) writes:
> I am preparing to implement a Change Management system in a VAX Cluster
> environment where none has previously existed. However, I am receiving
> conflicting input: some people say that the end user, i. e. the
> applications programmer, should be involved in the process of implementing
> Change Management; others say that I am primarily dealing with changes
> to software and that applications programmers have nothing to do with
> the way I implement Change Management.
> 
> I would appreciate any input on the best way to proceed. Is it one way
> or the other? Or somewhere in between? Please send mail with your thoughts
> and/or opinions.
 
Mike, your question is not uncommon.
 
Whether you need to consider the feelings of the user (developer) 
community or not depends upon what your goal of the change 
management system is. If the system is to be used for only the 
software which is maintained by the systems group/system 
managers, then it is an internal (no pun intended) matter. If the 
developers/users are expected to use the change management system 
for their own work, however, it is a different story.
 
Working on a software product in an environment using a change 
management, configuration control, or similar control environment 
is different than working in an uncontrolled environment. I have 
seen client situations where the new tools improved things, and I 
have seen client situations where the tools were total failures. 
In one case, I was brought in primarily to install such a system, 
and, when I put file protection on source files as the first step 
of requiring people to use the system, the deputy project leader 
and one of his senior programmers objected strenously, as "That 
will prevent us from making changes as we need to" (The problem 
of undocumented, on the fly changes was the reason for the 
management system in the first place).
 
The result was "a management system" where everybody could make 
any change they wanted to, at any time they wanted to. 
Anotherwords, "status quo ante".
 
Successful uses of such tools require user cooperation, or they 
will be circumvented, with sometimes disastrous results.
 
I hope that this has been helpful. My apologies for the lenght of 
the message!
 
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