Answers to your survey....
1) Is dev/test/prod on same LPAR? I have seen both scenarios. Small shop = yes, Big shop = no. In my opinion, production workloads should at least be partition separated from any test/development activities.
2) Is dev/test/prod on same box? Same answer as number one. The trend it to COMPLETELY isolate production from dev/test, meaning the production frame is isolated to production only. Sometimes that dev/test frame is even in different data center.
3) How frequently are promotions from dev to test allowed? Not a developer, but pretty sure there are no restrictions whenever the proper change management promotion policies have been followed.
4) Does separating DEV from TEST require more time & effort for a given development project? If you are using a change management product the promotion process is automated, so I would think the marginal effort is trivial. There will be more partitions and/or systems to manage so your department's workload will increase.
5) What would be some reasons why this is a good idea (besides the auditors told us to)? It's a good idea because you have an isolated development environment(s). When you couple isolated dev/test environments with the proper change management procedures this greatly reduces the chances of production issues. The isolated environment also provides a place to test other activities that can have a potential negative affect on production like hardware changes, PTFs, OS upgrades, and 3rd party software changes. I have even seen test/QA environments in the promotion path between development and production which provide even more protection. (DEV-->QA-->TEST-->PROD) More promotion levels will translate to more cost, but how much would a production bug cost and what is the likelihood said bug would have been caught in the pre-production promotion path?
***********************************
Bradford Lovelady
Operating Systems Engineer
Technology Infrastructure Services
Wells Fargo Bank l 200 Wildwood Pkwy l Birmingham, AL 35209
MAC W2691-010
Tel 205-938-1999 l Cell 205-826-2834
brad.lovelady@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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-----Original Message-----
From: midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:midrange-l-bounces@xxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of Stone, Joel
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2012 1:58 PM
To: 'Midrange Systems Technical Discussion'
Subject: development/test/prod environment mini-survey
My company is considering separating dev from test.
For this survey: DEV is where programmers play; TEST is where business analysts and users try out new stuff, PROD is where the money is made.
Please respond only if NOT a software vendor - Im sure rules are much different when there are thousands of installs involved at a software vendor.
I would like to inquire how other iseries shops are handling this.
1) Is dev/test/prod on same LPAR?
2) Is dev/test/prod on same box?
3) How frequently are promotions from dev to test allowed?
a. No restrictions
b. Daily
c. Weekly
d. Other
4) Does separating DEV from TEST require more time & effort for a given development project?
5) What would be some reasons why this is a good idea (besides the auditors told us to)?
Thanks!
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