This chapter contains the following topics:
Prompted by the move to distributed client and server environments, software change management has assumed increasing importance. Customers want software that maximizes their return on investment. Development cycles are shrinking, and companies need to maintain a competitive advantage and speed up time to market. In addition, development environments today are more complex than ever. Organizations may have hundreds or even thousands of developers distributed around the world. It has never been more challenging to manage maximum developer productivity while ensuring high-quality and rapid deployment cycles.
Change management includes the following areas:
This encompasses the check-in and checkout or revision management of code, models, and so forth.
This represents the re-creation of an application for various revisions.
This is the control of logical and physical movement of code between development, testing, and production.
This is the notification and electronic distribution of software.
This is the reporting, tracking, and resolution of application problems.
This encompasses the management of both physical level software components (source code) and logical level components (specification components, design diagrams, and so forth).
This includes project planning and scheduling, task assignment, and tracking.
This encompasses managing and synchronizing code from multiple geographic locations.
Distributed development refers to the ability to perform development using one installation of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne and deploying that development to another installation.
For example, a developer in Paris could create new objects using the Paris installation of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne. An administrator in Paris could then use the JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Product Packaging Tools to create a CD that includes those new objects. This CD could be shipped to London where an administrator updates the London installation of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne (assuming that both installations are at the same release level). The JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Product Packaging Tools described in this guide provide this functionality.
This ability should not be confused with remote development, which is the creation of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne objects by a developer who is completely disconnected from any installation. With remote development, the developer can connect to a JD Edwards EnterpriseOne installation later and merge those objects.
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Product Packaging helps manage the complex development environment by enabling you to synchronize development teams across remote locations or multiple platforms.
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Product Packaging can assist in overcoming some of the challenges of distributed development such as:
Increasingly, development organizations are located across multiple physical locations, from adjacent buildings to across continents.
Not only may your developers be in different physical locations, they may also be developing on and for multiple platforms.
In addition, the use of outsourcing and subcontractors has exploded in the software industry. A challenge for many organizations involves tracking the software source code that third-party software vendors provide. The software may be being built not only on Oracle software, but also on vendor software.
Finally, things become even more complex when you need to make local changes to the supplied software. All of these factors create an urgent need for management of software across multiple geographically dispersed locations.
Object packaging provides a very simple way to move any JD Edwards EnterpriseOne object from one machine to another through the creation of a zip file that contains compressed files and directories. The zip file, called a PAR file, can consist of JD Edwards EnterpriseOne objects from either local specifications or from central objects. Depending on the purpose of the PAR file, it may also contain:
JD Edwards EnterpriseOne objects in an XML metadata specification file format.
Data dictionary items, user-defined codes, and new tables in XML file format.
Deployment components and a schedule of tasks to be performed, as well as documentation on these components and tasks.
Oracle Business Accelerator (OBA) files such as the Business Accelerator Schedule file, help files, and business process documentation.
Data PAR files that contain base configuration data for OBA.
Use object packaging within Object Management Workbench to create PAR files from local specifications. Use object packaging within Configuration Assistant to create PAR files from central objects. Once a PAR file is created, it can be easily transported from one machine to another (for example, through email or a USB flash drive).
Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Software Mastering Tools are used to perform these basic processes for JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Product Packaging:
Package definition.
Batch process to validate the definition.
Batch process to master the software.
Batch process to validate the master image.
The tools used for mastering are:
Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Software Mastering Director automates many routine, repetitive, and time-consuming mastering tasks, reducing manual processes and increasing control. In addition, verification and master reports inform you about each step of the process.
The JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Software Mastering Director application:
Provides the ability to build a mastered version of objects or modules.
Uses a series of batch processes (UBEs) and manual tasks that build all of the components of a master.
Creates a final product that is an image master in a tree format, which administrators can burn onto a CD.
Provides verification and master status reports.
Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Change Table Configuration Director enables you to share code across all or some of the locations. JD Edwards EnterpriseOne keeps an inventory of code and data changes in files known as change tables. The JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Change Table Configuration Director provides a JD Edwards EnterpriseOne administrator with the ability to define how a module's change tables are to be built. You can even use the Director to define a source set of changes and move them to multiple target development locations.
The JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Change Table Configuration Director:
Defines which change tables are to be included.
Specifies multiple target and source release combinations.
Runs change tables from a central master batch process (UBE).
Use Oracle's JD Edwards EnterpriseOne Data Cleanup application to create procedures and templates to clean up the software master data. The data cleanup application can delete obsolete data, standardize existing data, and provide integrity, summary, and error reports about the data. You can clean up these items:
Data Dictionary tables and specifications.
Autopilot tables.
User-defined codes and types.
Menu tables.
Object Librarian tables.
Central Objects tables.