Re: survey: frequency of in-house coded software enhancement promotions to production

Nathan replied to the list, and I don't mind sharing my responses, so
I will do likewise.

On Wed, Apr 25, 2012 at 10:24 AM, Stone, Joel <Joel.Stone@xxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

How often does your shop promote in-house
source code enhancements to production?

This question almost doesn't make sense in our shop. "Promote"? We
work directly with production software all the time.

Ages ago (long, long before I started) the company bought software
(that I guess we would call an ERP today), including source code.
That software got customized beyond all recognition and is now
essentially our company's own custom ERP. We have three RPG
programmers, and all of us just compile directly to production at our
discretion.

1)      Frequency of promotions into Production of
home-grown software enhancements (not break/fix
patches & not vendor upgrades) - ie daily, weekly,
monthly, or anytime.

Any time. (And the word "promotion" doesn't even really apply.)

2)      Do you agree with the frequency?

Yes. For our shop and our software, it would not be cost-effective
(and perhaps just plain not effective) to have more layers, more
bureaucracy, and more formal processes.

3)      What problems do you see with the frequency?

It does depend on the three of us knowing what we're doing, and
communicating with each other. (So it's not resistant to incompetent
or unprofessional team members. But all of us have been here more
than 10 years, and we haven't added anyone new in that time.)

John