AUTOMATED METHODS AND SYSTEMS FOR DEVELOPING AND DEPLOYING PROJECTS IN PARALLEL

• US 20090300580A1
• Filed: 12/17/2008
• Published: 12/03/2009
• Est. Priority Date: 12/20/2007
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: HSBC Technology & Services Incorporated (HSBC Holdings plc)
• Original Assignee: HSBC Technologies Inc.
• Inventors: AVIDAN, Dan, HEYHOE, Marc, FINN, Daron
• Granted Patent: US 8,365,140 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: 717/106
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/30 Creation or generation of source code
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/36 Software reuse
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/45 Exploiting coarse grain parallelism in compilation, i.e. parallelism between groups of instructions
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/70 Software maintenance or management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 8/71 Version control security arrangements therefor G06F21/57; Configuration management
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/44 Arrangements for executing specific programs
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/46 Multiprogramming arrangements

Abstract

Embodiments of the invention are directed to system and method for managing parallel development of projects. One embodiment of the invention is a method of automatically managing processes in the parallel development of an application through a graphical user interface. The graphical user interface manages the automated processes, which are able to complete their tasks without further user interaction. The automated processes managed by the graphical user interface include, provisioning a first development environment and second development environment. The processes also includes deploying a second release of an application to the second development environment, and merging modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into a first source code and a first content of the first release. After the releases have been merged together, the process automatically deploys the third release of the application to a production environment for use by users.

Claims

1. An method of automatically managing processes in the parallel development of an application through a graphical user interface on a client computer system, the graphical user interface being used to managing automated processes executing on servers, wherein the automated processes complete their tasks without further user interaction, the automated processes comprising:

provisioning a first development environment, including at least a first server executing an application platform, a source code control system, and a content management system;

generating, from a first release of the application having first source code and first content using the first development environment, a second release of the application, wherein the second release includes second source code and second content of the application;

provisioning a second development environment, including at least a second server executing an application platform, a source code control system, and a content management system;

deploying the second release to the second development environment;

merging modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release of the application including third source code and third content; and

deploying the third release of the application to at least one production environment server for use by users of the application, wherein the deployment includes, for (a) installing executable versions of the third source code on a production environment server executing a production application platform and (b) installing the third content, to a production environment content management system.

2. The method of claim 1, wherein the first release of the application is a production stream.

3. The method of claim 1, wherein merging the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release of the application including third source code and third content is performed by a non-technical business user through the graphical user interface that includes interfaces for managing tasks and for reviewing the result of completed tasks.

4. The method of claim 1, wherein the source code control system and the content management system have internal branching mechanisms.

5. The method of claim 4, wherein the first release, second release, and third release of the application are each separate versions in the source code control system and the content management system.

6. The method of claim 1, wherein provisioning the second application platform comprises:

running one or more scripts to install source code and content on the second application platform.

7. The method of claim 6, further comprising:

locking the second application platform before running the one or more scripts; and

unlocking the second application platform after running the one or more scripts.

8. The method of claim 7, wherein provisioning further comprises:

logging the tasks performed by the one or more scripts and logging the results of the tasks performed by the one or more scripts to a central logging component.

9. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating a backup of the first release before merging the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first release.

10. The method of claim 9, further comprising:

rolling back the merging of modifications using the generated backup.

11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

deploying the third release of the application to a pre-production environment; and

testing the third release in the pre-production environment, before deploying the third release to a production environment.

12. The method of claim 11, further comprising:

generating a baseline based on the second development environment, wherein the baseline includes the status of source code and content files within the second development environment;

comparing the second release of the application to the baseline; and

deploying the second release of the application to the second development environment responsive to the comparison.

13. The method of claim 12, wherein deploying the second release of the application to the second development environment responsive to the comparison comprises:

deploying source code files that are modified.

14. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

generating unique identifications for at least one source code file and one content file of the second release before deploying the second release to the second development environment, and using the unique identifications when merging the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release of the application.

15. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

reviewing, by a user, a log of the merging of the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to determine if any errors occurred during the merging process.

16. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

forwarding users of the production environment to a backup production environment in the event of a failure, and synchronizing the production environment and the backup production environment using a storage area network.

17. The method of claim 1, wherein merging the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release comprises:

at least one of, adding in a source code file, deleting a source code file, ignoring changes to a source code file, overwriting a source code file, and including only parts of a source code file.

18. The method of claim 1, further comprising:

comparing changes to the source code and content between the first release and the second release.

19. The method of claim 18, wherein comparing changes to the source code and content between the first release and the second release comprises comparing source code listings and comparing rendered displays of content files.

20. The method of claim 19, wherein the rendered displays of the content files are selectively highlighted for visual comparison.

21. The method of claim 1, wherein deploying the third release of the application to a production environment comprises:

automatically stopping execution of at least one application on the production environment before deploying the third release; and

and automatically starting execution of the third release of the application after deployment of the third release to the production environment.

22. The method of claim 1, wherein each of the servers executing the application platform, the source code control system, and the content management system, are separate and distinct servers.

23. The method of claim 1, wherein deploying the second release to the second development environment comprises installing executable versions of the second source code to an application platform of the second development environment and installing the second content to a content management server of the second development environment.

24. The method of claim 1, wherein the graphical user interface on the client computer system sends commands to a corresponding management application executing on a deployment and build server, and wherein the deployment and build server is coupled to the production environment through an electronic network, and builds executable versions of the third source code for deployment on the production environment application platform server, and wherein the deployment build server installs the third content to the content management server of the production environment.

25. An system for automatically managing processes in the parallel development of an application through a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface being used to managing components for performing automated processes, wherein the components complete their tasks without further user interaction, the component comprising:

a provisioning component for provisioning a first development environment including at least a first application platform, a source code control system, and a content management system, wherein the provisioning component

(i) generates, from a first release of the application having first source code and first content using the first development environment, a second release of the application, wherein the second release includes second source code and second content of the application;

(ii) provisions a second development environment, including at least a second application platform, a source code control system, and a content management system;

a deployment component for deploying the second release to the second development environment;

a merging component for merging modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release of the application including third source code and third content; and

the deployment component deploying the third release of the application to a production environment for use by users of the application, wherein the deployment includes installing (a) executable versions of the third source code and (b) the third content, to another application platform for the production environment.

26. The system of claim 25, wherein the first release of the application is a production stream.

27. The system of claim 25, wherein merging the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release of the application including third source code and third content is performed by a non-technical business user through the graphical user interface.

28. The system of claim 25, wherein the source code control system and the content management system have internal branching mechanisms.

29. The system of claim 28, wherein the first release, second release, and third release of the application are each separate versions in the source code control system and the content management system.

30. The system of claim 25, wherein provisioning the second application platform comprises:

running one or more scripts to install source code and content on the second application platform.

31. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

generating a backup of the first release before merging the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first release.

32. The system of claim 25, further comprising:

deploying the third release of the application to a pre-production environment; and

testing the third release in the pre-production environment, before deploying the third release to a production environment.

33. The system of claim 32, further comprising:

generating a baseline based on the second development environment, wherein the baseline includes the status of source code and content files within the second development environment;

comparing the second release of the application to the baseline; and

deploying the second release of the application to the second development environment responsive to the comparison.

34. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

generating unique identifications for at least one source code file and one content file of the second release before deploying the second release to the second development environment, and using the unique identifications when merging the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release of the application.

35. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

reviewing, by a user, a log of the merging of the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to determine if any errors occurred during the merging process.

36. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

forwarding users of the production environment to a backup production environment in the event of a failure, and synchronizing the production environment and the backup production environment using a storage area network.

37. The system of claim 26, wherein merging the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release comprises:

at least one of, adding in a source code file, deleting a source code file, ignoring changes to a source code file, overwriting a source code file, and including only parts of a source code file.

38. The system of claim 26, further comprising:

comparing changes to the source code and content between the first release and the second release.

39. The system of claim 38, wherein comparing changes to the source code and content between the first release and the second release comprises comparing source code listings and comparing rendered displays of content files.

40. A computer application development system managing and coordinating parallel development of a computer application by separate computer system production environments, the computer system comprising:

a first development environment comprising a first provisioning system provisioning at least a first application platform, a source code control system, and a content management system, wherein the first provisioning system generates, from a first release of the application having first source code and first content using the first development environment, a second release of the application, wherein the second release includes second source code and second content of the application;

a second development environment comprising a second provisioning system provisioning at least a second application platform, a source code control system, and a content management system;

a merging system component for merging modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release of the application including third source code and third content; and

a deployment system component deploying the second release to the second development environment, and deploying the third release of the application to a production environment for use by users of the application, wherein the deployment of the third release includes installing (a) executable versions of the third source code and (b) the third content, to another application platform for the production environment.

41. The method of claim 40 wherein the first and second development environments are geographically distinct.

42. The method of claim 40, wherein the first development environment is used to develop the first release and the second development environment is used to develop the second release, wherein the first and second release represent distinct versions of an application, and wherein the first release is the main release of the application into which modification to the second release are merged.

43. A computer-readable medium of instructions for automatically managing processes in the parallel development of an application through a graphical user interface, the graphical user interface being used to managing automated processes, wherein the automated processes complete their tasks without further user interaction, the instructions of the automated processes comprising:

provisioning a first development environment including at least a first application platform, a source code control system, and a content management system;

generating, from a first release of the application having first source code and first content using the first development environment, a second release of the application, wherein the second release includes second source code and second content of the application;

provisioning a second development environment, including at least a second application platform, a source code control system, and a content management system;

deploying the second release to the second development environment;

merging modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release of the application including third source code and third content; and

deploying the third release of the application to a production environment for use by users of the application, wherein the deployment includes installing (a) executable versions of the third source code and (b) the third content, to another application platform for the production environment.

44. The method of claim 43, wherein merging the modifications to the second source code and the second content of the second release into the first source code and the first content of the first release to generate a third release of the application including third source code and third content is performed by a non-technical business user through the graphical user interface that includes interfaces for managing tasks and for reviewing the result of completed tasks.

45. The method of claim 43, wherein the first release, second release, and third release of the application are each separate versions in the source code control system and the content management system.

46. The method of claim 43, wherein provisioning the second application platform comprises:

running one or more scripts to install source code and content on the second application platform.

47. The method of claim 43, further comprising:

deploying the third release of the application to a pre-production environment; and

testing the third release in the pre-production environment, before deploying the third release to a production environment.

48. The method of claim 43, further comprising:

generating a baseline based on the second development environment, wherein the baseline includes the status of source code and content files within the second development environment;

comparing the second release of the application to the baseline; and

deploying the second release of the application to the second development environment responsive to the comparison.