Change Management

The customer I currently spend much of my time contracting with wants to
look into changing how they manage their program modifications,
additions, fixes, etc...

 

Currently there are 6 developers on the iSeries.   We have a development
box and a production box.  Programs/Source/objects include OCL, FMTDTA,
RPGII, RPGIV, DFU, DDS,  Logicals, Tables, Views, Indexes, SQLRPGLE, SQL
Procedures, etc..  It's a big mix of old and new.   Development is V5R3
Prod is V5R2 (and we realize that sometimes causes problems).

 

We use a home grown package where we check out the source into our own
library on the development box, make and test our modifications, and
then check in our changes to the production box.   The package keeps an
old copy of the programs, moves the new source to production, recompiles
the new source, sets authorities, etc...  We are an experienced group
and know what can be checked in immediately, and what needs to wait for
nights or weekends, while no users will be trying to use the
programs/files we are modifying.  Each developer is responsible for
getting their own modifications into production.

 

The request is to move to a methodology where we schedule all our
changes to go into production at the same time (Maybe one time per
month) which one person will manage.    We've been asked to think about
it and how we would implement something like this.    I do not have a
lot of experience with the large change management packages available
for iSeries shops nor do I think my customer would be willing to foot
the bill for such a package.

 

For those of you not using a change management package, are any of you
doing this where everyone's changes are going live at one time and if so
how are you managing it?

For those of you using a packaged change management system that manages
all this for you, what is it and how long did it take to move into that
environment and become productive with it?

 

Thanks in advance for any input.

 

David Smith