Case Studies

We've all had good and bad experiences with software projects and with the use (good, poor, or lack thereof) of SDLC tools. If you would like trite about your experiences, contact me (john.smart[at]javapowertools.com) with your idea. You never know, it might find its way into the Java Power Tools book!

Maven2 good and BAD

Anonymous (194.176.201.x) 1172587356|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi

I would like to throw in my thoughts for what its worth. I am a fan of what the maven folks are trying to achieve. However, its greatest promise is also its biggest liability, and obstacle to adoption - the REPOSITORY! If you're working on a simple java application with no web components and no database access it's GREAT! It simplifies project set up, takes a lot of the labour out of the build and offers automation, reporting and other goodies. But if your trying to do a Web project with java technologies, e.g. el-api.jar, many other components (e.g. Icefaces) your in trouble!!!

Perhaps if there was a major vendor pushing the tool and the concepts (Sun perhaps?) then there may be a wider adoption. That would be great.

I'm not proposing that maven2 is the only (or the best) option, but if the major hurdles to its use in anything other than a trivial application were overcome, (the repository again) it could end up as the best game in town.

Thanks to the guys at Interface 21 for finally getting the SpringFramework included in the maven2 repository.

Re: Maven2 good and BAD

Anonymous (99.140.172.x) 1207178419|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Just FWIW, Sun has a repository which is compatible with both Maven 1 and Maven 2. You can find information about this repository here:

https://maven-repository.dev.java.net/

But, a better solution is to use the open source implementations of almost all the Java Enterprise APIs from the Apache Geronimo project. You can find these under:

http://repo1.maven.org/maven2/org/apache/geronimo/specs

This group is going to contain everything you need, it has the el API available.

Tim O'Brien
http://www.sonatype.com/book/

a nice tool stack (if you can afford it)

Anonymous (194.176.201.x) 1172588313|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hi

The role I'm currently in, we have adopted a very nice tool stack. A lot of up-front set up but after that its pretty much plain sailing. We have:
Eclipse 3.2.2 with
Checkstyle, PMD, Mylar, Subversion (Subclipse), JUnit plug-ins
Subversion version control (obviously)
maven2
Jira issue tracking
Confluence wiki
Cobertura test coverage
QuickBuild Continuous Integration system
and
Enterprise Architect for requirements and design in UML, and document generation.

With a lot of integration between the tools. It might seem a bit "heavyweight", but we need to satisfy very large (tax payer funded) customer and provide CMMI capabilities.

Re: a nice tool stack (if you can afford it)

wakaleo 1172608680|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Hmmm, sounds like a nice stack. Nice choice of O/S stuff. Atlassian do high quality products, if, as you say, you can afford it ;). SPARX Enterprise Architect is a good UML tool as well. Why do you use Confluence as a wiki rather than, say, trac?

Re: a nice tool stack (if you can afford it)

Anonymous (62.190.230.x) 1172764335|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

The reason for Confluence rather than another (free) option was to allow for different communities to have "dedicated" wiki. Its a really nice feature called Spaces. In this way the hardware support folks have their space, the sales folks have their own space and project managers have their own space. We're trying to convince the finance people to join in too! It its a very helpful feature that other wikis dont have to quite the same extent.

Re: a nice tool stack (if you can afford it)

wakaleo 1172784593|%e %b %Y, %H:%M %Z|agohover

Interesting. I've done something like that using multiple trac environments dished out by an Apache server, for several distinct development projects. Would you be interested in writing a short case study article about your chosen environment? If so, let me know by mail and we'll see what we can arrange.