Change management software counterpoint

[jdyer@xxxxxxxxxx]

I haven't seen any contrary viewpoints, so here's one ...

I have seen and heard of a few instances where companies have adopted 
change management and then decided it did not add value to their shop 
standard.

However, discontinuing the product can come at a price: In at least one 
instance I know of, properties for objects managed by the CM product, such 
as the "source library" and "source file" attributes yielded by DSPPGM, 
were not helpful in the post-CM setting.
 
It has been a while, so this narrative may not be spot on, but I recall 
that the events underlying promotion of an object from test to production 
involved copying the source from the repository into a temporary source 
file in QTEMP library followed by compilation. The object properties for 
the production object stated that the source file/library was something 
like QTEMP/Z100SRC, a non-permanent object. The only true record of what 
had taken place resided only in the CM product.

Our customer found that discontinuing the CM product left them with no 
fallback position, and a suite of un-auditable production libraries. 
Obviously, this is not a desirable outcome.

If I were shopping these products today, I would try and get a sense of 
how common it is for companies to retreat from CM, and measure the 
potential consequences.


John G. Dyer, CDP
Vice President
Information Management Consultants, Inc.
jdyer@xxxxxxxxxx
http://www.imcedi.com
812.421.0045 ext. 203