Is concurrent development in Ideal for Datacom possible, if using multiple versions of a single program?

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• Ideal

Issue/Introduction

Is concurrent development in Ideal for Datacom possible, if using multiple versions of a single program?

 

Resolution

Unfortunately, there is no automated way to consolidate the changes to multiple versions of a program.

Assuming that each person would be working on a different version, and unit testing their change independently of each other, the end result in one scenario is that someone will have to incorporate the changes from the others into a “master” version of the program, and then retest all of the changes for both unit and regression testing.

While not an automated tool to reconcile the program versions, it might help to create an export file of each of the program versions, and then use a file comparison utility to create a Delta report or file of the changes so they can more easily identify which lines need to be added to the consolidated version.

In this scenario, the biggest exposure comes from missing changes or additions to Working Data fields, or from having multiple programs changing the same field.

There may be other tools or methods to aid in this process, but the work to incorporate these changes would still need to be managed manually.