So, the paper proposal I have with Danilo Beuche of pure-systems, has been accepted for the 3rd BCS CMSG Conference.

The controversially named ‘Configuration Management: an anti-pattern for implementing variability?’ will shine a light on the murky area of software variant management - managing the process of developing multiple similar-but-different software systems aka Software Product Lines.

We’re planning to argue that most organizations fail to manage their variants efficiently due to a heavy reliance solely on their Configuration Management system and that adopting a more comprehensive variant management approach can yield better results.

We’ll back this up by discussing a couple of case studies of organisations who rely heavily on their CM system for variant management and one who has introduced systematic variant management to complement their CM system.  We’ll conclude by explaining the benefits of this complementary approach.

There is a sense of Daniel entering the Lion’s Den here (no pun intended Danilo) but hopefully the audience of Configuration Management veterans will treat us kindly despite this potential heresy.

The conference takes place in Oxford from May 15th-16th.