Configuration Management Engineer

Configuration Management Engineer

Job Description:
Deliver consistently high quality product builds to the Technology Team during the development life of a software product.

Job Duties (include but not limited to):
Deliver consistently high quality product builds to the Technology Team during the development life of a software product
Maintain the machines, scripts and tooling required to build the product including software version control and maintenance
Design and develop tools to increase the efficiency on all aspects of Configuration Management, Automation and Source Control
Using Clearcase, maintain a working history of all files used to create the product
Be available for engineers and internal end user questions and recommend a logical solution and/or corrective action for possible problems that may occur
Recommend avenues to improve build and/or development process
Document and maintain documentation on the current process for accuracy in an ever changing and dynamic process

Job Requirements:
Bachelor's degree in Computer Science or related field
Knowledge of Windows, Unix, TCP/IP, Perl, Batch programming, Microsoft Visual Studio, ODBC, Web Publishing and Drive Image all plus s
Must have the ability to track and maintain the status of several different projects
Strong oral and written communication skills in English
Strong analytical skills
Ability to quickly learn the build process and become a contributing member of the Build and Configuration Management team in a global software development company
Ability to analyze a process and recommend improvements
Ability to interact and maintain productivity of personnel from different backgrounds in an environment where time and customer satisfaction is critical
Hands on experience with Source Control Infrastructure (Rational Clearcase, CVS) a plus
Working experience in the R&D department of a commercial software company
Knowledge in System Administration (Windows and Unix)
Programming experience using Perl, Java, InstallShield, Batch File Programming

Jim Shemroske

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Configuration Management Analyst (Hardware/Infrstructure)- SE

Configuration Management Analyst (Hardware/Infrastructure), Reading, Excellent salary and company benefits on offer

My highly renowned IT Services client is offering an exciting opportunity to join a dynamic and forward-thinking team, focused on delivering first-class infrastructure configuration management solutions within the defence sector. We are looking for flexible, pro-active, highly communicative candidates who enjoy working both autonomously and as part of a team, who strive for high-quality solutions in all their work.

The Role:
You will be actively involved in managing, monitoring and verifying Hardware and Infrastructure changes through the whole Release & Deployment life-cycle, for one of the largest programmes in Europe.

You will undertake verification & audit processes across the development and operational IT infrastructure phases of projects, reporting on finding, and ensure all releases meet the high quality standards expected by the team.

You will play an integral part in establishing system and component baselines within the Configuration Management tools used and will control and verify the configuration of project development and operational IT infrastructure.

The Candidate:
Suitable candidates will have a strong background working within an ITIL v3 network Configuration Management environment, with a precise working knowledge of hardware and infrastructure configuration management, using tools such as Serena Dimensions, ClearCase, PVCS, StarTeam, SourceSafe Assist, HP Service Manager etc.

Competency within audit and automated discovery, audit reporting and discrepancy handling is desirable, along with a background and knowledge of Data Centre CM, including virtual and physical servers, power usage and capacity planning.

You will be pro-active in suggesting process improvements and negotiate development of new ideas, particularly in the automation of process and development of configuration management tool-sets.

Candidates are required to have a strong competency of working to ITIL standards (ideally version 3) within large scale implementations, and will ideally possess ITIL qualifications

This role will involve some work outside core business hours, so flexibility and a previous background of early/late and weekend working is ideal.

Candidates should be willing to undergo security clearance processes.

If you are a good match then please apply with a CV to learn more about this truly fantastic opportunity to work for an expanding market leader who has an enviable reputation
Project People Ltd is acting as an Employment Agency in relation to this vacancy.

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Subject: Configuration Management the build system's job? - by: Eric Minick

tekkie wrote:
What do you say? Is Software Configuration Management the build system's job? Or is it a shared responsibility between the SCM/VC system and the build system?
I don't really agree with anybody on this thread...

The problem is probably in the question, and more precisely in the 'is' predicate.

SCM is about management, and shouldn't make sense unless it would be itself manageable. Thus it has to take responsibility for its presentation of reality: it cannot accept arguments of authority. Thus nothing is unless we want it and know why.

The special kind of sophisticated SCM I'd wish to achieve/evolve (trying to avoid the word 'build'), based on concepts taken from clearmake, would reverse the terms of the assertion: SCM is a by-product of Build Management.

I have already attempted to develop this idea, e.g. in: DO Management, or in: DO as CI, but here is a new bit of argument: identification makes only sense for stable artifacts. Unless the SCM/build tool provides a way to promote, save, and share derived objects, the only stable artifacts are (hand-produced, and thus slowly changing) 'sources'. But as soon as the life-time of DOs gets extended, it becomes possible to base the whole identification on them, and this makes much more sense than the traditional state-of-things.
This is because DOs have more intrinsic value, because they have a structure (based on dependency graphs), and because they may typically be run (they don't need to be painstakingly interpreted).

Marc

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Subject: Configuration Management the build system's job? - by: jptownsend

Mark,

I guess will have to agree to disagree. But keep this in mind, I say as a CM person I typically don't do that many CM activities, it is either done by developers or testers. Now they may or may not know they are doing CM things but they are. So if you look at CM activities I would go so far as to say that Developers do about 50% of all CM activities and testers about 40% and CM folks about 10% at least that's been my experience.

Regards,

Joe

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CM Build Engineer - ClearCase at Configuration Management (Murray Hill, NJ)

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Subject: Configuration Management the build system's job? - by: Eric Minick

It can be a blend.

You mention that determining which components (and versions of those components) should be used is the job of people. That should be true, until the people decide that there are obvious rules like "Use the latest version of the logging library approved by the security team" or "Latest build of that other related project".

Once there are rules, the mundane work of actually looking up the correct version and provisioning it into the build workspace can, and should, be handled by the build system. All mundane, repetitive, rule based work should be pushed to automation if possible to free up smart, creative, and less consistent people to work on interesting things - like defining the darn rules in the first place.

I suspect the SVN folks are used to working in a straight forward environment where clear rules made it easy to offload the work to automation. If the rules aren't defineable in your environment, the first question to ask is "why?". Is it because it's hard to formally track what's approved / released / built from various teams? You can fix that. It's possible that things are genuinely hard and human intervention is required. That tends to slow things down and I try to drive it out of the process where possible.

Keep in mind that there is a difference between a build tool like Make and Ant which are compile / package tools and larger build management frameworks which handle component provisioning, etc.

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Software Designer - Network Management - Negotiable - Portsmouth

Sector: ITLocation: PortsmouthSalary: NegotiableJob Type: PermanentReference No: J6352Date Posted: 04 Nov 2010Viewed: 3Mylen Recruitment LtdMore Jobs from this Recruiter

Software Designer- Network Management

Essential:
Good Degree (Bsc/BEng), or equivalent, in Software, Electronics or Communications Engineering.
2 years in OO software design using UML.
2 years in Java development as part of team using automated build tools and collaboration environment
GUI development using SWING
Distributed application development using RMI.
Database design and SQL programming skills are required
Development with XML technologies
Full software lifecycle including software integration testing and support.

Desirable:
Java development using Spring, Hibernate, Ant, Web Services, SOAP .
Testing including unit testing using JUnit.
Eclipse for software development
Enterprise Architect 7.1 for design modelling using UML
Software development processes.
MySQL experience
Integrating open source technologies including OpenMap and JGraph
Build and configuration tools such as ClearCase, Ant and Cruise Control

The Job
The Software Designer will actively design and implement advanced software solutions within Network Management, and be responsible for the detailed architecture, design, software coding and testing as well as supporting the project system integration. The Software Designer will work closely with the NMS Architect, and must be able to work well with in a highly motivated team environment.

The Architecture and Detailed Design is Object-Oriented using UML in the Enterprise Architect toolset. Implementation technologies will include Java, XML and SQL.

Integration with COTS technologies such as IBM Tivoli will be required, as well as the configuration and scripting of existing specialist control and monitoring products.

The Software Designer will be expected to utilise best practise for design, implementation and testing. Agile development lifecycle models will be used where appropriate, and full configuration management of all software development will be managed using Clearcase and ClearQuest.

Mylen Recruitment Ltd is a recruitment agency specialising in Aerospace, Automotive, Aviation, Defence, Design, Mechanical, Electronic, Production, Science, R&D, IT and Software, Engineering.
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Subject: Configuration Management the build system's job? - by: Udovichenko

Hi tekkie,

It's that simple: Build Management is a part (a subset) of Software Configuration Management, not vise versa. Thus, you cannot make SCM "a build system's job". You'll have source code management (version control), build management, issue tracking etc. - combined together. You'll even have some ALM solution, but it's NOT build systems' job to handle the whole SCM.

It's like somebody say "it's the engine transporting me and my car is my engine"... absurd, isn't it? Your car has an engine, but it's not all, you got lots of other parts combined together.

P.S. And the subject defenetly has nothing to do about SVN or CVS

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Subject: Configuration Management the build system's job? - by: mbools

I have always maintained, and continue to maintain, that "build" is not a part of CM nor vice versa. They are two distinct practices. In my view, build is a step in the creation of a product and as such is part of the line function (in the old management terminology of line and staff).

Build is in essence the action taken to translate man-readable material (source) into machine-readable material (executable).

Determining the components to include, which versions of the components, which set of build instructions, and which build engine is the responsibility of someone such as the team lead or PM. Putting the package together for the build and delivering it to the Build Engineer (BE) is the role of the CM specialist. Those duties are not part of actually performing the build.

Now often the person who is assigned to the role of CM Specialist is also assigned to the role of BE. Why? Probably because it is cheaper. You don't have to hire and pay for the benefits of a separate BE.

With all that said, it may be that the build system contributes to CM activities if the system has features that normally are done by other means. For example, in the old days, versioning/revisioning was done by hand. Someone finally automated that so that a CM tool would do it as updated files were checked in. Now if you have a build system that contributes to that, then you could claim that the system contributes to CM activities. But that is a long stretch from saying that either one is a part or subset of the other.

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Software Configuration Management Strategies And IBM Rational ClearCase- A Practical Introduction `2nd EDITION

Chapters: Bitkeeper, Ibm Rational Clearcase, Perforce, Team Foundation Server, Microsoft Visual Sourcesafe, Visual Studio Team System, Accurev, Code Co-Op, Starteam, Ibm Rational Clearcase Ucm, Sun Workshop Teamware, Ic Manage, Allfusion Harvest Change Manager, Ftpvc, Mks Source, Ibm Configuration Management Version Control, Qvcs, Vault, Ibm Rational Multiversion File System. Source: Wikipedia. Pages: 78. Not illustrated. Free updates online. Purchase includes a free trial membership in the publisher's book club where you can select from more than a million books without charge. Excerpt: Rational ClearCase is a software tool for revision control (e.g. configuration management, SCM) of source code and other software development assets. It is developed by the Rational Software division of IBM. ClearCase forms the base of version control for many large and medium sized businesses and can handle projects with hundreds or thousands of developers. ClearCase supports two kinds of use models, UCM, and base ClearCase. UCM provides an out-of-the-box model while base ClearCase provides a basic infrastructure (upon which UCM is built) which allows for more flexibility. Both can be configured to support a wide variety of needs. ClearCase can run on a number of platforms including AIX, z/OS, Linux, HP-UX, Solaris and Windows. It can handle large binary files, large numbers of files, and large repository sizes. It handles branching, labeling, and versioning of directories. ClearCase was developed by Atria Software and first released in 1992 on Unix and later on Windows. Some of the Atria developers had worked on an earlier system: DSEE (Domain Software Engineering Environment) from Apollo Computer. After Hewlett-Packard bought Apollo Computer in 1989, they left to form Atria. Atria later merged with Pure Software to form PureAtria. That firm merged with Rational Software, which was purchased by IBM in 2003 . IBM continues to develop and ma...More: http://booksllc.net/?id=343023

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Configuration Management Analyst - UNIX, Clearcase, ClearQuest

QA Tester - SOLSTICE INTEGRA and GREENHAT
LanceSoft Inc.  -  Herndon, VA

SOLSTICE INTEGRA and GREENHAT TesterSystems Tester needed for all in-house developed systems written in JAVA/J2EE and SQL programming languages, upgrades provided by third party vendor TIBCO , documentation of all systems test scenarios, test cases, test...

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Configuration Management the build system's job? - by: bglangston

I have always maintained, and continue to maintain, that "build" is not a part of CM nor vice versa. They are two distinct practices. In my view, build is a step in the creation of a product and as such is part of the line function (in the old management terminology of line and staff).
Build is in essence the action taken to translate man-readable material (source) into machine-readable material (executable).
Determining the components to include, which versions of the components, which set of build instructions, and which build engine is the responsibility of someone such as the team lead or PM. Putting the package together for the build and delivering it to the Build Engineer (BE) is the role of the CM specialist. Those duties are not part of actually performing the build.
Now often the person who is assigned to the role of CM Specialist is also assigned to the role of BE. Why? Probably because it is cheaper. You don't have to hire and pay for the benefits of a separate BE.
With all that said, it may be that the build system contributes to CM activities if the system has features that normally are done by other means. For example, in the old days, versioning/revisioning was done by hand. Someone finally automated that so that a CM tool would do it as updated files were checked in. Now if you have a build system that contributes to that, then you could claim that the system contributes to CM activities. But that is a long stretch from saying that either one is a part or subset of the other.
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Project Management Server Solution - by: IoanLucian

Stand By Soft announces the official release of RationalPlan Project Server. The product is out of Beta and it is available for interested users on request. By the end of the year the server will also be offered for free to all users. Plus the new version adds useful features like online launch from browser for RationalPlan Multi Project, automatic version upgrade mechanism, more filters, updates for tasks, a short online tutorial and much more.
RationalPlan Project Server is a concurrent user project management software developed to improve the existing RationalPlan suite of project management products by adding a server module that gives project managers concurrent access to a central project data repository when creating plans, tracking progress, allocating resources, managing budgets or analyzing workload.
RationalPlan can be considered a Microsoft Project alternative with additional features like multiple projects management, shared resources and email integration.
Important changes added to this version:
Update tasks directly from browser

Multi Project launch button on login page

Late task filter for assignments
With current version users get better feedback from the interface like about information, an online tutorial and the possibility to launch RationalPlan Multi Project directly from browser as a Java Webstart application. The about information lets users know different details about their server like the path to the database, version, to whom it is licensed and so on.
From this point the administrator will also be able to see the role of each user in the users table. This makes easier to manage users and licenses based on their roles. Also since it was implemented an automatic version update mechanism the process of upgrading the server is easier and the administrator has the possibility to download and install the new version without the need to contact RationalPlan team.
The resources now have the possibility to also filter the assignments using a late task filter. This will allow them to see all the tasks with completion date before current date that is all tasks that are late or behind the schedule. These assignments are rendered with red color to suggest the importance of these tasks. Another useful feature for resources is the ability to update the percentage completion of the assigned tasks. This way it is easier to keep the project evolution up to date since the project manager delegates the work of updating tasks completion to the corresponding resources.
RationalPlan suite includes:
RationalPlan Single Project - project management software for single projects
RationalPlan Multi Project - project management software for multiple projects, projects that are interconnected through dependencies and share common resource
RationalPlan Project Viewer - free project management software viewer, the solution for anyone (from project stakeholders to team workers) to view projects details
RationalPlan Project Server - a centralized management of company's projects while offering concurrent/controlled access for different users
RationalPlan is designed as an affordable alternative to Microsoft Project with some extra-features like multiproject management and it is covering project management area from WBS construction, project planning and scheduling to critical path management, over allocated resources detection, progress tracking, cost estimation, etc. Gantt chart support as well as various time line reports are also provided. It offers you the most important capabilities of a good project management software while being able to operate on various platforms starting with Windows, Mac, Linux and all other Java enabled platforms.
RationalPlan Project Management Software[/URL] is available at http://www.rationalplan.com. It can be download from http://www.rationalplan.com/download.php.
About Stand By Soft
Stand By Soft was founded in 1997 as a software company specialized in building desktop applications and components. RationalPlan is a [URL=http://www.rationalplan.com/">project management software[/URL] that follows the general recommended guidelines from project management domain. MOOS Project viewer is a [URL=http://www.moosprojectviewer.com/">Microsoft® Project viewer[/URL] that allows you to open, view in a dynamic way and print any Microsoft® Project file.
Contact name: Lucian Ioan
Address: Aleea Parului, Nr.4A, Craiova, Dolj, 200346, Romania
Email: marketing@rationalplan.com
Phone: +40727159969
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Configuration Management the build system's job? - by: baynes

The other day I came across 2 people on the same day who told me that they believe that part of the build system's job is to do software configuration management.
Having spent nearly all of my professional life in SCM this came as surprise to me because I've tried to avoid using the build system to manage software configurations, and whenever I've come across these build systems these were highly complex solutions with lots of gotchas and usually created in part from a legacy environment that used 'simple' version control tools.
Both of these people happened to be Subversion advocates and it got me wondering whether this has anything to do with the fact that Subversion was built as a replacement for CVS and doesn't have the notion of configurations.
What do you say? Is Software Configuration Management the build system's job? Or is it a shared responsibility between the SCM/VC system and the build system?
- Antoni
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Software Configuration Management Strategies and Rational ClearCase(R): A Practical Introduction (Addison-Wesley Object Technology Series)

Introduces basic concepts and the evolution of SCM tools. Explains how to coordinate parallel work both within a project and between multiple projects. Explores the issues and approaches to managing geographically distributed development projects. For software developers, managers, and technical leaders. Softcover. DLC: Software configuration management.

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Subject: Binary object management in AccuRev? - by: tekkie

Hi,
you'd have to manage this with pre-keep and promote triggers.

(I have such triggers in place. Not for the purpose you mention, but to a) make a smarter decisions of which files to store as text/ptext/binary, and b) to get notifications when certain types of files are being promoted, or the target stream is within a certain family.)

/Tomas

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