4 of 12 items
Spring, 1995
Executive Summary
The Configuration Management Market
Continuus' Strategy
Sales and Marketing
Continuus Software Corporation is a leading developer of change and configuration management products and services for the client/server marketplace. The company develops and markets Continuus/CM and Continuus/PT tightly integrated applications for software configuration management and problem tracking. The Continuus system manages the full process of software development and on-going maintenance, enabling software developers to increase productivity, improve product quality, and speed time to market.
Continuus addresses the new requirements for software development today arising from fundamental changes in the software world. Specifically, the old, self-contained software applications are giving way to systems which are constantly evolving: growing on top of existing code and merging with other systems. Also contributing to the changing face of software development is the virtual explosion of variants that must be created and maintained to support multiple platforms, operating systems, databases, user interfaces, and native languages.
Continuus Software is uniquely positioned to address these requirements by delivering a "Team Engineering" solution for software developers and IT managers. "Team Engineering" is a new framework for software development and maintenance which enables tight coordination of people, tasks, data, and tools in a cohesive solution.
The company's products are based on an open, client/server architecture, and offer a graphical user interface as well as an SCCS-style command line interface. Products feature a customizable, pre-defined process model for rapid implementation, and integrate seamlessly with popular development tools. Continuus offers a range of technical support, education, and consulting services, and was recently rated one of the highest configuration management (CM) companies in customer satisfaction, according to a study done by the Ovum Group, a respected UK-based market research and consulting group.
Continuus sells its products to the computer, telecommunications, commercial and government markets through a direct sales force, as well as through resellers overseas. Over 4,000 developers around the world at Fortune 500 companies such as Apple, BMW, Bell Atlantic, Lockheed, Motorola, ScotiaMcLeod, Tandem use Continuus' products. Founded in 1987, Continuus is privately owned and backed by $7.5 million in venture capital from Norwest Venture Capital, Brentwood Associates, and Advanced Technology Ventures.
Modern definitions of software configuration management vary, and CM products cover a range of functionalities that include problem tracking, process management, configuration management, and version control. According to a recent report by Ovum, the market for configuration management tools has grown by 50% in the last year, to a value of more than $180 million worldwide in 1993, with a projected growth to $1 billion in 1997.
In the last 25 years, software change and configuration management has evolved from manually maintained change log books and annotated source code listings, to sophisticated commercial products which automate parts software development and maintenance.
During the 1960's and 1970's, software systems were typically proprietary applications developed on the host system in which they were deployed. Managing software meant tracking source code, command language procedures or scripts, and executables. Configuration management utilities available at this time were for versioning source code and providing check-out, check-in capabilities. Version control utilities included tools such as SCCS and RCS, both of which are currently available in the public domain, and are often bundled with systems software.
In the 1980s and early 1990's, mini-computers, midrange systems, and UNIX workstations dramatically expanded the variety and complexity of software systems and applications. Two new approaches to configuration management emerged during this time which provided more sophisticated functionality for managing versions of the entire system (or the configuration), as well as handling dependencies and builds, and a certain degree of parallel development.
One solution is "vault-based" CM. Based on a simplistic "check-in/check out" model, this essentially "locks up" data because it does not allow direct access to controlled files from standard development tools and utilities. Other solutions, such as a toolkit- or methodology-oriented approach, typically provide either a layer of scripts and procedures on top of basic versioning utilities, or more complete but rigid CM methodology. Examples of these include Digital's CMS, Softool's CCC, SMDS's Aide-de-Camp, Intersolv's PVCS, IBM's CMVC, and SQL Software's PCMS.
A newer approach to CM is also based on a simple check-in/check-out model, but deliver "file transparency," which allows direct access to controlled files from development tools and utilities. Typically, these tools offer improved support for parallel development, but due to their proprietary nature, they fall short support of supporting the complex processes of today's environment. Examples of third generation tools include DSEE from Apollo, NSE from Sun, Legent's TeamTools, and ClearCase from Atria.
Today's corporate and commercial software development teams are facing a significantly different scenario. Software developers now deal with the complexity of re-engineering legacy systems to new computing standards, rather than having the luxury of developing fresh applications for a new environment. Clear starting and ending points for projects are blurred in a continuum that is fueled by competitive business requirements and tight deadlines.
Another factor contributing to the changing landscape of software development is the virtual explosion of variants which impact development. Software must run on a variety of hardware platforms, operating systems, and database platforms. They must often support multiple user interfaces, handle several foreign languages, and be customizable for niche markets and users.
Finally, today's development projects are increasingly distributed in nature. Team members may be working in different locations and must share and synchronize files. In other cases, teams may rely on source code from a variety of third-party sources, then customize and embed the code in a different system, and track all new versions received from the vendor without disrupting the individual customizations.
Poor quality and reliability, missed deadlines, overrun budgets, unrepeatable build processes, systems integration bottlenecks, spell disaster for today's time and mission-critical projects. To survive in this new environment, development teams need a new solution.
Continuus provides the tools and services required for tight coordination across all facets of application development. Continuus/CM and Continuus/PT empowers all team members to effortlessly coordinate development efforts, and better manage the full development and maintenance process. Continuus also provides for management of diverse software code and project data, including projects under development by geographically dispersed teams and code from multiple third-party vendors.
Only a next-generation system such as Continuus offers a solution which includes the following characteristics: a process-oriented approach; fast, non-invasive implementation; flexibility and portability; distributed code management and integrated bug tracking and configuration management functionality.
Team Engineering requires a coordinated approach to all elements of the development process. Next-generation CM solutions must support a quality-oriented company's proven, repeatable methodologies and processes. CM solutions must manage and support all project data, track change requests, and provide appropriate life-cycle management for varying data-types (C, C++, COBOL, or FORTRAN, for instance).
This requirement is especially important for organizations pursuing international ISO 9000 certification, or for organizations such as government contractors, which are required to reach specific levels on the Software Engineering Institute's (SEI) capability maturity model.
To be truly effective, next-generation CM solutions must offer a path for fast start-up so that a development team is not slowed with the introduction of an effective SCM environment. New solutions must include a customizable process model with a pre-defined set of rules and paths for project development which may be used as a "launch pad" to get a project running quickly. Processes may be customized as the project evolves. Additionally, CM solutions need to support or extend a company's existing tools to speed the implementation path and shorten the learning curve.
Next-generation solutions must be flexible enough to support the specific processes that work best for each group, rather than forcing a development team to subscribe to a set of predetermined processes.
Modern CM solutions must be easily adaptable, continually supporting a company's processes as they evolve and improve their architecture, must be scalable, and able to handle growing systems. Because few sites have only one computing architecture, hardware platform, or operating system, today's CM solutions must also be portable and support a truly heterogeneous work environment.
Fourth generation solutions must feature functionality for distributed code management enabling geographically dispersed development teams to synchronize common project data, whether or not the sites are linked by a high-speed network. These solutions must also be able to track software sources and/or libraries received from external suppliers, and merge them with local modifications.
Because problem tracking is closely related to software development, today's CM solutions must coordinate the efforts of a quality assurance team with development. This enables developers to improve the quality of final release, and insure that a new release addresses specific user and market requirements.
Advanced build management tools must be transparently compatible with popular Makefile formats, so that developers can quickly and intuitively work with the tools they are most familiar. Build must also provide functionality for automatically controlling versions when multiple developers are working with a single file. Next-generation build should support parallel, distributed, and remote builds, and also provide a full Bill-of-Materials to insure full build reproducibility.
Continuus Software Corporation takes leadership in providing change and configuration management solutions which delivers next generation functionality. Continuus enables teams to take a progressive approach to implement a process-oriented approach to change and configuration management at their own pace, exploiting their existing code, tools, and procedures, while incrementally leveraging the powerful features of Continuus' next-generation CM system.
Continuus offers products -- Continuus/CM and Continuus/PT -- and processional services to create an integrated infrastructure which manages the process of software development and on-going maintenance. (see product literature for additional details).
Continuus' solution is based on a client/server model for scalable performance in any size software development team. The client/server model optimizes the use of diverse computing resources -- such as the data processing power of high-power server machines with the easy-to-use personal computer.Continuus' client/server architecture can be distributed across a broad range of popular UNIX platforms, including: Sun SPARC SunOS and Solaris; HP 9000/700 and 800 HP-UX; and IBM RS/6000 AIX. The company is also planning support for PC clients running Microsoft Windows and NT, as well as Macintosh clients.
The system also comes with industrial strength, off-the-shelf relational database technology from Informix which manages the project "meta data," or the full scope of information about a software development projects, such its file types, stage in the development lifecycle, the types of operations that can be performed on a particular file, and so forth. The product leverages the scalability and performance of Informix, as well as its on-line back up functionality.
Continuus' solution combines the capacity and power of a relational solution with the standard file system where all the project files (for example, versions, source code, executables, test data, documentation, etc.) are stored. In this way, developers can transparently leverage their familiar development tools. Without the intrusiveness and administrative overhead of products based on proprietary file systems.
Continuus provides teams of users with a single view into both the "meta data," as well as the project file itself. To the user, the meta data and the project file appear as an integrated "object" which can be manipulated using industry standard UNIX development tools. This reduces the cost of software development because all project information is readily available, and training costs are minimum since developers can use their own tools.With Continuus, users have "views" of the projects they are working on rather than independent copies of the project files. This enables multiple engineers and project teams to work simultaneously on projects using the same software code files in an efficient, team-oriented environment. Continuus notifies development teams about other concurrent uses of files, so engineers are not isolated from concurrent projects, and development efforts are neither duplicated or made irrelevant by other projects. At the same time, Continuus protects teams from having their work overwritten by parallel development efforts since multiple versions are not reconciled against each other until developers are ready to submit work or accept others changes.
At the core of Continuus' solution is a process engine which automates and manages the promotion of projects through each lifecycle stage. By enabling all teams involved in the development, testing, and documentation of software to work cohesively, companies are able to dramatically shorten the development cycle.The system includes a pre-defined process model for rapid implementation, and also allows for full process customization. Customized is based on a variety of factors, including user roles (i.e. administrator, build manager, tester, or developer), parallel development rules, security and access control rule, state transitions (i.e. working, integrate, released), and file type.
Continuus' process management functionality provides a complete audit trail and includes full query and reporting capability so that project managers may check the status or history of a project at any time and collect relevant metrics.
Customers may take advantage of the process expertise of the Continuus Professional Services organization. This group of specialists offers a variety of standard and tailored consulting and implementation services to assist customers in analyzing current processes, identifying, planning and implementing new processes, then evaluating and improving the development cycle on an on-going basis.
Continuus has strategic technology and marketing agreements with a number of industry-leading companies, including Centerline Software, Frame Technology, Hewlett Packard, Informix, and Sun Microsystems. Continuus sells its services and products through a direct sales force, and through resellers in the UK, and Europe.
Based on the market evolution to a more complex, dynamic software development environment, and the Continuus Team Engineering solution to process-oriented software configuration management, Continuus Software is uniquely positioned to lead the market for change and configuration management products and services.
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