More than a set of source files is needed to build a modern software product. To truly excel at software version management, literally everything that is needed to plan, create, and release a product will benefit from being under its control. Here’s a checklist of things to look for:Â
More than a set of source files is needed to build a modern software product. To truly excel at software version
management, literally everything that is needed to plan, create, and release a product will benefit from being under
its control. Here’s a checklist of things to look for:
Best Practices Checklist:
Software Version Management
q Source Code
Start with the obvious. From there head both
upstream towards requirements and research, and
downstream to build and testing. Look for anything
that helps shape, create, build, document, and
deploy your product.
q Requirements/Research
The history of your project starts with research and
requirements gathering. For example, if you version
the personas used to determine requirements and
scope, you can track which exact persona was used
to develop which version of a specification or design
document.
q Architecture Diagrams
Rarely does an architecture diagram emerge
fully formed and remain unchanged through
deployment of a project. Tracking the changes with
version management allows you to tie in changes
to understand emerging facts or new competitive
pressures that affect the evolution of your
architecture.
q Functional Specifications
Specifications evolve, just as software does.
The specifications might be considered the user
experience architecture of your product, and similar
benefits from versioning apply to them
as to the architectural documents just discussed.
q Design Documents
Ever make the same design decision more than
once? It’s easy to do with large or long running
projects. Versioning your design docs helps teams
discover the chain of reasoning behind a decision, or
even that a pressing issue has already been resolved,
and why.
q Agile Charts and Boards
Agile generates a slew of documentation, all of
which deserves a place in your version management
tool. Fortunately, the initial physical Kanban and
other types of management boards are moving into
digital equivalents, where they too can be more
easily ve