ProjectLocker Blog: Tag hosted

Agile developers deliver faster when ProjectLocker teams with Rally Software

Damon Young — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 11:05:00 -0500

As I said before: We like Agile.

So, it only makes sense for ProjectLocker to lend a helping hand to the biggest Agile project management platform in the world. As we announced just last week, ProjectLocker has now entered into a strategic partnership with Rally Software, and we're just added the first of what we expect to be a series of technical integrations between our two products.

Starting today, all ProjectLocker Lite and Enterprise customers can configure their Subversion commit notifications to update tickets in Rally while also providing a link back to the commit itself within Rally. Now, teams who use Rally to manage their Agile projects can empower all of their team members (developers, testers, project managers, etc.) to look directly into the code in question on a given ticket or issue. Conversely, ProjectLocker customers who choose to use Rally can now add their powerful Agile management hub to their suite of tools, bringing all of the other stakeholding constituencies into the development process while still supporting many of their preferred applications. By giving both developers and testers easier direct access to the relevant source data, bugs and problems can be identified and resolved much more rapidly, increasing your time to market.

If you're a Rally customer interested in using ProjectLocker, or a ProjectLocker customer interested in Rally, contact us at sales@projectlocker.com, and we can help you get started with whichever half of the partnership you need. If you're currently using both ProjectLocker and Rally, contact our technical support staff, and they can walk you through the integration process.

In the meantime, watch this space for future integration announcements.

ProjectLocker joins the Agile Alliance

Damon Young — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 10:25:00 -0500

It's no secret: we like Agile Software Development here at ProjectLocker.

We're not dogmatic about any one particular methodology over another. As a company, we've always focused on supporting the most efficient ways software developers can save time, save money, and build better software. But if you look at the Agile Manifesto, I think you'll see some things that we might agree with:

"Individuals and interactions over processes and tools

Working software over comprehensive documentation

Customer collaboration over contract negotiation

Responding to change over following a plan"

With that in mind, especially given that supporting Agile teams is the raison d'être for ProjectLocker Lite as well as our long-standing partnership with the Agile & Scrum experts at 3Back, we felt it was time to make it official:

ProjectLocker is now a corporate member of the Agile Alliance.

For all of our current users who are Agile practicioners: I'd encourage you to take a moment and see what resources the alliance can offer to enhance your current project.

And if you're an Agile practicioner or Alliance member who's not using ProjectLocker yet, I think you'll like what you see.

Spread the word about ProjectLocker. Win an iPhone.

Damon Young — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 22:21:00 -0500

We knew there was room in the marketplace for a hosted tools vendor who treated small teams with just as much care and consideration as a big enterprise IT department. But we were all a bit taken aback by the tremendous response we've received for ProjectLocker Lite. For those of you asking to take part in an official ProjectLocker affiliate program, you may yet get your wish later this summer. In the meantime, we thought we'd try something simple to whet your appetites, so we're having a Referral Raffle.

You can now get entries into our drawing for a brand new iPhone from Apple simply by telling your friends and fellow developers about ProjectLocker. When your friends sign up from our website, make sure they enter your email address into the "Referral Source" field at the bottom of the page during checkout. Whoever has the most referrals as of midnight EST August 31, 2008 will be awarded an iPhone, courtesy of ProjectLocker. So, if you love our service, go spread the word -- you may just strike mobile gold.

What's on your mind about Subversion?

Damon Young — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 17:37:00 -0500

We love feedback.

So much so, we even have an e-mail address soley dedicated to receiving the thoughts of our clients, called, unsurprisingly, feedback@projectlocker.com.

At this moment in particular, we would love to hear from all of our current clients with your thoughts on our hosted Subversion service. What do you love? What do you love less? What would you like to see changed?

Send us an e-mail. Let us know what you think.

Source control best practices for teams with multiple projects

Damon Young — Thu, 10 Apr 2008 14:08:00 -0500

While we're very big proponents of Subversion here at ProjectLocker, we also recognize that even the best tools and, consequently, the teams that use them can be crippled by the wrong development processes. With that in mind, here is an excellent article by Henrik Kniberg, a Certified Scrum Master with Crisp, a Stockholm-based Agile consulting firm. In it, he proposes a methodology to most effectively make use of your version control tool when applying Agile best practices in an environment with multiple & distinct teams working from common code base. Notice that he never mentions a specific version control tool, just a set of procedures and team protocols to help optimize the process. More details at the link below:

"Version Control for Multiple Agile Teams"

Watch this blog for more posts in the future on best practices and other development resources we think will help you build better software.