Versioning and Traceability is the module of GxTend , the
full-web tool suite to manage a software development project, that enables a
vision of project through time.
Now with GxTend it is possible to access the whole
"history" of all the elements of our application, all the time.
GxTend goes along with the products evolution,
recording all the modified elements in its internal repository. It does not just
consider the GeneXus "exportable objects" but also external knowledge, table
structures and their respective indexes as well as the navigation of each of the
versioned objects.
As the product evolves, GxTend captures in its data base
the evolution of the relevant entities and the relation between those entities
(such as cross referencing). It is possible to search among the versioned
objects, then select and compare the changes made.
The figure shows the evolution of the VprosTra table,
where the current version is highlighted and we can see that since its creation
it has suffered five changes. Each of the structures can be seen and the changes
compared, as it was specified in the article about Productivity
Tools.
Revisions
It is difficult to talk about versioning and not include
the Revisions concept.
GxTend enables taking a snapshot of the current versions
at a given moment, generating the revision concept. A revision can be
supplemented with information that explains the meaning of that "snapshot" for
the organization.
Each revision shows our application's situation at a given
time.
We can generate the revision in an interactive manner,
such as associating it to a delivery to the client or putting parameters for its
execution by calendar, which is recorded as an automatic revision.
When displaying revisions, GxTend highlights the changes
in the data base structures. As we observe in the following figure, GxTend
groups by color those revisions that correspond to the same data base
structure.
We then see how the GxTend repository contains all the
information of the evolution of our application and gives us the right tools to
process it with flexibility.
The user can make searches, select, compare the selected
revisions while identifying the changes through time. You can select a
particular revision and browse through the project status at a given
time.
As we mentioned earlier, you can navigate through the time
evolution of any of our applications entities, in a Kb, among different Kbs or
even among different clients, projects or modules.
And the traceability?
Both the Versioning and the Traceability are important
aspects in any software development. It is so much so that they are required in
order to obtain quality certifications.
GxTend enables recording the reason for the evolution of
an element and/or any other information that you want to associate to the
change.
One example can be the management of the incidence that
caused a new version of an entity, be it because a new requirement or because
the correction introduced at an incident.
The versioning and traceability information can be
employed to build the metrics that interest the organization, considering the
vision of the projects various actors.
From its graphic, full web interface, GxTend enables
accessing the traceability information. For example for the objects of a GeneXus
Kb, it is possible to define an "Object ChangeLog"-type entry, so that in each
evolution of the object we can have the following information:
Diff. between version n and version n-1 of the object.
User who made the modification. Explanation of the modification.
Whats next?
Some uses of the Versioning and Traceability module of
GxTend were shown. Together with the Productivity Tools they complete the
projects vision, both through time and through the KBs. In the next issue we
will present the Concurrent Control module, which offers options for various
developers to work in a controlled manner on the consolidated KBs, organizing
the work with agility and preventing time waste.