Change Packages
Software development often proceeds at a furious pace. Developers are changing files in the SCM repository to fix defects and implement features, often working on multiple issues simultaneously. Release managers, architects and QA teams are faced with the task of determining which features and issues are present in a given release. Without the proper tools to understand which file changes are associated with which defects or issues, releases can suffer from missing features or defect regressions that ship to customers.
AccuRev Change Packages are a unique and powerful solution to the challenges of issue based development. Change Packages provide a mechanism that enables developers and managers to group file changes together into a logical whole. Once created, a Change Package behaves atomically, which allows users to move, copy, modify, merge or revert the change package using simple drag and drop operations. Change Packages enable release managers to work at the issue or task level, while still providing developers with full access to the underlying file contents of the Change Package. This is in sharp contrast to change lists or change sets provided by other vendors, which typically provide only static labels for changes and little or no support for complex operations on sets of changes.
In the AccuWork integrated issue tracking system, Change Packages can be used to provide developers and managers with a powerful tool to manage features in a release without the need to manipulate individual files. Change Package information is also available to users of third party issue tracking systems via the AccuBridge integration system, enabling requirements traceability between issues filed in the issue tracking system and code changes in AccuRev.
Key features
Atomic behavior, including move, copy, modify, merge and revert- Full history available for all Change Package operations
- Promote by issue enables logical feature work without the need to access individual files
- Change Package dependency analysis provides release managers with a powerful analytical tool to assure that all internal dependencies between features have been met
- Merge by Change Package is supported
- Change Palette enables drag and drop operations on Change Packages to facilitate easy movement of features between releases, virtually eliminating regressions