Developing an application is an iterative process. Developers revise application code and periodically move these components to the test environment for user feedback and acceptance. At some point within the application development lifecycle, when the application is stabilized, it is moved to production. After an application is released for general use, problems must be fixed, and the fixes must be tested and incorporated into the production environment. This is the essence of the change management process, which is also referred to as production control.
Organizations vary widely in how they approach change management. Some delegate much of the responsibility to developers, while others establish alternative processes to maintain a higher degree of control. Typically, developers utilize development tools to perform these duties, while change management professionals prefer batch-oriented methods to move application components between environments. Developers may be required to create change management packages in order to initiate changes after the application is moved to production. A combination of these approaches is often used in larger companies.
The examples that follow illustrate two different change management processes. These sections describe product features and methodologies that can be utilized by companies to meet their change management objectives.
Example: Moving Application Files: A Simple Change Management Process
Developers move application files between the development and test environments using their development tool, as shown in the following image. When the application is finished, the application is copied from the test environment to the production environment, using operating system utilities. There may only be a single test environment.
Example: Moving Application Files: A Comprehensive Change Management Process
In this example, four environments are established to increase the level of control of moving application code to production. Developers use the Resources tree to move application files from the development environment to the test environment. Developers then use the Change Management Export facility, when they are ready to move their changes to the user acceptance test environment.
The Change Management Export facility allows the developer to select the resources to be moved and creates a change management package. An administrator can subsequently move the change management package into an acceptance test using the Change Management Import facility. Some organizations may choose to utilize an automated process to import the content, to achieve better integration with their business processes. As shown in the following image, when the application is ready for release, the production control personnel initiate a file system copy of the application to the production environment. Users begin using the application and the change management process shifts into an application maintenance support role. From this point forward, incremental updates to production are facilitated by administrators using the Change Management Import facility.
