Re: [Gnu-arch-users] may I pick your brains?

[Paul Cory]

>   2) I wanted to persuade my manager, who was shopping for
>      revision control technology, to choose arch.
>  3) Arch lost (big time) because I couldn't point to a
>      web site that had a professional look and that "made
>      the case" for arch in a rapidly assimilable way.
> By way of generating "raw materials" to edit into being that web site:
> what are the 5 most important things to say about arch up front?

So far, the suggestions have been from the folks really know their arch 
and version control stuff. However, the anecdote applies to convincing 
managers, who don't always understand what all the cool technical stuff 
means or, more importantly how it affects their goals. While I'm a 
revision control newbie, I do a lot of explaining technology benefits 
to less technically astute management types. I also something of the 
factors I and others in my organization use in making technology 
decisions.

1) How will arch make my people more productive? Why is it better than 
X (subversion, CVS, Bitkeeper and so on)? The technical details can be 
quoted to support this, but this is the most important consideration 
for the manager.

2) Who's using arch for what? It really helps to be able to point a 
manager type to a successful project similar to what you're attempting 
to do, or better yet, is larger and more ambitious than what you're 
attempting. A track record is hard proof that the product works in the 
real world. Managers like that - it reassures them that this isn't a 
blind alley they're going down. For example, Apache+mod_perl is much 
easier to defend to my managers when I have places such as Salon.com to 
point to.

3) Is our data safe?

4) Arch is under continuous development and support options are 
available for it. Yes, I know the joy of Open Source is that you get 
the source code to work with. But my organization, like most, doesn't 
have the capability to maintain or extend arch, so it's vital to know 
that bugs are being fixed, features added and so on, on a regular 
basis. It's also vital for us to have a place to go for support. Paid 
is nice, but not necessary - what's important is that support is easy 
to get to and quick to respond, even if it's e-mail.

5) What platforms does it run on? If it doesn't run on the operating 
systems my organization uses, it's not an option.

Obviously, the Website does need to have a wealth of technical detail 
for the technical types who will implement arch. Managers though, are 
looking for overall benefits and for a decision that they can defend to 
their superiors and peers,

Paul Cory
WCPSS Webmaster