Change and Release Management for Applications & CMSG AGM

Thursday 22 October 2009, 1 day event

Synopsis

This event includes presentations around the theme of change and release management, including theory and case studies.
By popular request we have an interactive workshop session.

Time and Location

The event takes place at the BCS London Office, 5 Southampton Street.

The cost for members is £45 (+VAT) and for non-members is £70 (+VAT), and includes lunch and refreshments during the day.

Please note that attendance is limited to 45 people on a first-come-first-served basis.

If you wish to come only to the CMSG AGM, you can come for free. To do this you must email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it (we need to add you to the attendance list for security and catering purposes).

You must register online via the BCS booking system:

• Direct link takes you directly to the event registration form (you must login first)
• www.bcs.org/events/registration - requires you to select the event from the list - use this link if you have not registered with BCS

BCS London Office - Southampton Street
First Floor, The Davidson Building,
5 Southampton Street
London WC2E 7HA

09.30 - 10.00	Registration Tea/Coffee
10.00 - 10:10	Introduction
10:10 - 10:55	Coordinating Change and Release Management in Games Development, Gordon Milligan, RealTimeWorlds
	Gordon will be reviewing his experience in the processes employed in large game projects with up to 70 staff including coders, designers and artists. He reviews experiences of moving from using a single mainline for all staff to a more flexible model coordinating the work of multiple SCRUM teams. He will discuss the many transition and mind set issues that needed to be addressed during this time of great change. The old mainline model was broken severely on many occasions, and caused large reductions in productivity. To counteract this they created an excessive and restrictive pre-check in process that was cumbersome and long. Over time they moved to change the purpose of the mainline from being a development codeline for the whole team to the central codeline to consolidate all feature work into one place where it can be scrutinised by the Quality Assurance team. Each separate SCRUM team was given its own development codeline which fed completed features into the mainline. Changing the process in this way has been useful but it is a tricky transition to achieve. There were many problems that needed addressed and some have lingered for months.
	About Gordon
	Gordon has worked in the Video Game industry for over six years. He initially started out as a Software Engineer on the critically acclaimed Xbox 360 game Crackdown developed at Realtime Worlds (RTW) in conjunction with Microsoft. Staying within RTW he took on a Release Manager role for the Crackdown expansion pack project before continuing this role on another as yet announced project. Currently, he has a split role of QA and Release Manager.
10.55 - 11.25	Tea/Coffee/Networking
11.25 - 12.10	History Teaches Us A Lot, John E Abram, Monetical
	Managing change or preparing the release of a new application can be significantly enhanced if organisations look into their past. Evaluating the performance of previous change cycles or application releases provide a real and true insight into potential challenges and opportunities. Unfortunately, organisations are too enthralled in current activities to help themselves. This paper shall demonstrate using real case examples, that investing just a little bit of time capturing both operational and commercial characteristics, including detailed root causes, organisations are able to build up their very own expert system, therefore reducing the need to call upon traditional management consultants to solve complex operational and commercial issues resulting in unplanned change or enhance their application release and support activities.
	About John
	John founded Monetical in 2006. Monetical is a ready-to-go global consulting software service providing programme managers with cost-effective access to the appropriate industry expertise, unique analytical capabilities and predefined programme workflows that help identify and understand key performance influences. John has 20 years experience working in the fields of product analyst, product management and consultancy at some of the worlds largest software organisations. John holds a MSc in Computing for Manufacturing, Management & Technology and holds a MBA from the Bradford School of Management and in 2008 was a British Computer Society 'Consultant of the year' Finalist.
12.10 - 12.55	Configuration Management for Agile Teams - CM beyond check-out / check-in, Mark Roberts & John Own, IBM UK
	In today's economic climate, more teams are moving away from rigid processes, measured in the thickness of documentation, to Agile processes in which the development team has a greater part to play in the delivery of product requirements. How does software configuration management fit into this less formal approach to development ? In this presentation John Owen and Mark Roberts from IBM will explain how teams can use process and automation to support the creativity of Agile development, while maintaining the right amount of control over task management, configuration management and build management.
	About John & Mark
	John Owen is the Library Management and Rational Tools Lead, based at IBM's Hursley Park Software Development Laboratory. He has been providing Rational solutions to SWG UK manufacturing and development teams since 2004. His expertise is in Jazz technologies, ClearCase and ClearQuest. Previously he was a Development Manager for a Hursley based team that delivered two components into WebSphere using agile methods. His background is data architecture and management where he has worked with a number of clients (both within and outside IBM) in building, deploying and using databases. Mark Roberts is the Rational brand Solution Offering Manager. In this role he is responsible for the creation of innovative solutions based on the use of Rational products and expert consultancy services, such that they rapidly deliver measurable business value to customers. Prior to this he has held roles including project office management, delivery team management and integrating the services business of the recently acquired Telelogic organisation. Technical work remains the key focus of interest for Mark and his background in software development and consultancy services with ClearCase and ClearQuest is now being extended into the new Jazz based offerings from Rational.
12.55 - 14.00	Lunch and Networking
14.00 - 15.00	Workshop - How to Get Better Recognition for Change and Release Management?
	By popular request we have included this interactive workshop. It will be run by David Cuthbertson and Robert Cowham and will allow delegates to better understand the challenges of communicating the value of what they do in order to increase recognition. You can also bring your own particular challenges and ask for suggestions and help on the theme of change and release management for applications.
15.00 - 15.30	Tea/Coffee/networking
15.30 - 16.15	CMSG AGM
	The AGM for the CMSG - free to attend just this session (but notify us by email This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ). Agenda: 1. Apologies for Absence 2. Minutes of the last meeting 3. Actions from the previous AGM 4. Report from the Chair 5. Treasurer's Report 6. Election of Officers 7. Membership 8. Finance Discussion 9. Future Events 10. AOB
16.15 - 16.45	Refreshments/wine/networking
	(NB. Sessions and speakers may change)
The Configuration Management Specialist Group provides a forum for exchanging ideas, developing and promoting Change, Configuration Management and Release Management best practices and standards including formal accreditation and professional qualifications.

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