Understanding Implementation Considerations

When deciding how to implement Change Control, consider:

  • The level of development control that you want to maintain.

  • The amount of freedom that developers need.

  • The security requirements of the site.

How to Implement

Advantage

Disadvantage

Individual Control

For maximum control of the development environment, use both locking and history, and assign each developer a unique user ID. Then, definitions can be modified by only one developer (user ID) at a time, and developers are always prompted for comments when they lock and unlock definitions.

Developers can share ownership of their definitions only by unlocking them after each change.

Group Control

For flexibility, use locking and history, but assign developers who work on the same project a common ID. Then, developers can share definitions with other members of their group, but not with members of other groups. Administering security is also easier, because you have fewer user IDs to maintain.

The protection from simultaneous development of definitions is decreased. History is harder to track unless developers always include their names in their comments.

History Only

Provides the least restricted Change Control environment. In this situation, all developers can share all definitions.

Developers are not automatically prompted for comments. They can all share the same ID. If you have a very small development team, this option might be good.