Chapter 6. Establishing the Software Development Environment

Organizations implementing the Rational Unified Process (RUP) and other best practices appreciate the value of the discipline it brings to the software development process. Incorporating modern tools that automate and enforce the process adds even more value by increasing productivity and enabling team communication. This chapter discusses the issues involved in setting up a software development environment. The primary focus is on tools covering infrastructure for disciplines such as requirements management, change request management, and configuration management. Checklists of important features needed for the tools covering each discipline are introduced. Finally, a list of best practices for an organization adopting new tools is given.

Automated software development tools can be a tremendous boost to productivity. Unfortunately, they have an equal propensity to be a source of great frustration and can even drag down productivity.