Client Interview

Jeff Burch works in Agilent Labs on distributed measurement and control problems.

What is your job title? What are your main responsibilities?

[I work as a] software engineer in an R&D environment. In our research, we tend to build lots of prototypes to test out our ideas. If the research works out, we work with engineers in product divisions to get the technology into their next-generation products. We also work with organizations like NIST and IEEE to advance our work through appropriate standards.

What do you consider the most exciting—and/or rewarding—part of your job?

Getting to take a 3–5+-year perspective on the advancement of technology. Also, working in a central research lab with a tremendous number of very diverse researchers.

Many of our co-workers in Agilent product divisions are continually pressed by tight product development pressures. Researchers in Agilent Labs feel some of those pressures but we are not under the same "ship new product" deadlines that they are.

What's the most challenging part of the job for you?

Technology transfer from the central research labs to the product divisions is a challenging process. We need to be well aligned with their plans and they need to understand and influence our research direction. The pressure to help them with their current problems is always intense. Getting them to look more broadly at the technological trends and to prepare for them is always a challenge because of their immediate scheduling pressure.

How long have you been using SnapshotCM? Why did you start using it?

Many years (from the first release). We used Hewlett Packard's "History Manager" tool before then.

What is your background with SnapshotCM?

I use it daily. I do some administration functions but always have Glenn (another user) to help if I get stuck.

What is your background with version control and configuration management solutions?

I have extensive experience as a user.

Was there ever a period of time during which you went without a CM solution?

Way back in the dark ages before coming to HP.

Has your team ever used one of the "free" CM tools? If so, why did you stop?

RCS. It worked OK for one-person teams but was insufficient for our current needs.

Describe your team size and geography.

Our typical small team consists of less than 10 engineers, usually at multiple sites all within Agilent Technologies' intranet.

What challenges do you face doing version control in your team?

When we transfer technology to a product division, they often use a different version control system (Clearcase or SourceSafe). We usually get them to use SnapshotCM as they initially explore our technology to see if it will work for them. Some of them "love it." Others end up exporting out of SnapshotCM and importing into their tool.

Making this seamless would be a great feature!

Another challenge is dealing with code that becomes "leveraged." SnapshotCM provides great support for managing branches so the problem goes beyond your tool. Often a product division team will develop their product on top of a prior "release snapshot." As improvements are made to later snapshots, they often are hesitant to "copy changes" back into their snapshot. They just don't want to risk encountering new bugs when they simply don't need the new feature. Unfortunately, we sometimes end up making bug fixes in both places! 

SnapshotCM definitely helps but we still battle to prevent leveraged code from becoming a nightmare.

Do you have any other particular version control challenges related to the type of products you develop?

Smooth integration of SnapshotCM into Eclipse IDE would be great!

What does your development environment look like (distributed, tools used, particular challenges, etc.)?

It's all over the map: various flavors of Java, C++, Win2k, Linux, VxWorks, etc.

What were the primary reasons or frustrations leading you to switch to SnapshotCM?

Allowing multiple developers to check in/out from their "development snapshots" is by far the most powerful feature. Having file and directory rename and move support is the second most important feature. The third most important feature is almost zero admin requirements!

What do you feel are the advantages/disadvantages of working with SnapshotCM?

Refer to answer to previous question. The only disadvantage is needing to work with large teams in product divisions that are using a different tool, typically ClearCase.

What are your top three favorite features of SnapshotCM?

Development and Release Snapshots
File and Directory Change Versioning
Almost Zero Admin

How does SnapshotCM help your team save time/frustration/money?

We use it all the time and we don't need to allocate someone to be the SCC administrator. There's a very small learning curve involved and almost zero admin effort.

What is refreshing about using SnapshotCM?

It meets my needs without requiring an administrator.

What are your plans or hopes for working with True Blue Software in the future?

I hope that you will be wildly successful and will be in business over the long term so we can continue using your tool.

What would you recommend to other team leaders or managers who were thinking about adopting a configuration management solution?

Definitely check out SnapshotCM.