Perforce’s Version Management System has added streams to help agile teams determine what features and components can be added to software projects at the end of every iteration.
This new feature, available in beta today with a general release set for October, allows for codeline branch and merge workflow capabilities, managed by teams that are both colocated and geographically disbursed, according to Randy DeFauw, technical marketing manager at Perforce.
“Agile is one of the drivers behind streams. Streams give people better tools to manage complex development projects,” he said, adding that gaming and embedded software developers may find these streams particularly useful in the component development process.
DeFauw said the streams are like “branches with brains” as they allow release managers to see individual branches of the code and which stream is ready to be released. Although the streams component itself does not include inline social collaboration, DeFauw said it could easily be plugged in with one of the available integrated products.
Users can use the same workplace when switching from branch to branch and stream to stream, and the files that differ between the two branches are updated automatically. The upgrade also provides a stream visualization, which gives the release manager a quick overview of all areas of production, DeFauw said.
