Choreograph Collaboration

Computerworld - Collaboration is an impressive-sounding word, but it's so amorphous that it can obscure down-to-earth benefits for large IT shops that must work together across geographies and time zones. It's obvious that if you have operations in the U.S. and overseas, you need a tool to mitigate the high cost and administrative burden of managing software development.
The goal should be to put in place a common development environment that gives control to the individuals writing the code, rather than making them jump through permission-based hoops. They need source-code control, as well as capabilities for version management, change management, and quality and assurance testing. The tools have to be easy for developers to use (meaning minimal training is required), and managers must have access to the development process.
Typically, collaboration tools have been encumbered by hardware costs and administrative bottlenecks that prevent developers from managing the products by themselves.
The search for an appropriate environment should focus on more than just version controls. You need to be able to extract value from code reuse and shared developer expertise - wherever the developers may be.
For example, with developers in San Francisco, London and Walnut Creek, Calif., Barclays Global Investors needed a common platform to allow partners in Boston and Sacramento, Calif., to be part of the development process.
It was a challenge to find such a product, because it had to support generic development operations and it needed to be sophisticated enough to encompass XML development, Web-based client-order systems and large-scale trading operations.
The tool had to support multiple project types and act as a source-code development hub. This would speed technical project communication and make it possible to create archives for code and routine project activities, which could later be reused. With added control features, developers should be able to access the company's library of stored scripts and procedures. Because the software selected from Brisbane, Calif.-based CollabNet Inc. is in a single location, management oversight isn't a burden for developers.
Barclays made flexibility a high-water mark for the collaboration software, so developers can continue to use their favorite integrated development platform. Permission-based participation also lets third parties contribute to the process, spreading risk and expertise outside traditional boundaries. E-mails, face-to-face meetings, travel costs and project completion times were reduced. The software development infrastructure is now managed by one technical administrator working half time, down from three full-time positions.
Collaboration sounds like an elegantly choreographed experience, but the true value lies in the mundane advantages of reducing costs and making yourdevelopers' lives better.
Pimm Fox is a freelance writer in San Francisco. Contact him at pimmfox@pacbell.net.

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