ChangeMan ZMF Terminology

Following is some terminology to help you understand the actions in the ChangeMan ZMF package lifecycle that are supported in the default implementation of the ChangeMan ZMF plugin.

Package Audit detects problems that will occur in production if you install your package now in its current condition. Audit detects synchronization problems in relationships between components in your change package and synchronization problems between package components, components in participating packages, components in promotion, and baseline components. Each ChangeMan ZMF application is defined with Audit Level, which dictates the audit level which must be passed before the ChangeMan ZMF change package can be frozen and continue through the lifecycle.

Freeze Package locks package information and package components to prevent further changes and to ensure that the components you install into production are the same as the components you tested. You can unfreeze, change, audit, and refreeze change packages to fix problems found in testing.

Promote Package copies package components from staging libraries into test libraries. As a package is promoted from one testing level to the next, package components are removed from libraries in the prior level and copied from staging libraries into test libraries for the next level. You can optionally schedule the change package promotion.

Demote Package removes package components from test libraries.

Approve/Reject Package allows predefined approvers to review package information, components, and test results and approve or reject the package for install. An approver choosing to reject the change package must enter text explaining the reason for rejection.

Revert Package removes all previously entered approvals, unlocks package information and components, and reopens the package for development.

Distribute Package starts automatically when all required package approvals are received for a package that is scheduled for install at a remote site. The package is transmitted to the remote site, where package records are added to a ChangeMan ZMF P instance running there. Package staging libraries are transferred, and then the package is added to the P instance internal scheduler.

Install Package starts automatically, either when the package install date and time arrive, or when the last approval is entered, depending on the Install Job Scheduler defined for the package. If the application has production libraries that are separate from baseline libraries, current production modules are backed up and new versions are copied from package staging libraries into the production libraries. The final step of the Install process will baseline the package components and change the package status to baseline (BAS).

Hold Deployment puts a scheduled promotion on hold indefinitely, so deployment is not executed until the hold is released.

Release Deployment cancels a hold for a change package deployment that is currently on hold. Upon release, the promotion job will be executed according to the deployment schedule or will be executed immediately if the scheduled time has already passed.

Update Deployment Schedule allows you to update an existing deployment schedule, where the new schedule deployment date can be earlier or later than the original schedule date, but must be in the future and less than the change package installation date.

For detailed information on the use of ChangeMan ZMF, refer to the Serena ChangeMan ZMF User's Guide.