Razor is an Integrated Set of Tools for Software Configuration Management

Software productivity has suffered because demand for new software is increasing faster than our ability to supply it. Increased demand strains an organization's core technical resources and threatens software quality. The biggest contributors to software failure are the lack of coordination among developers and the inability to resolve team problems. Whether your organization has hundreds of developers building millions of lines or code or a small team developing new applications, it is important to invest in a resource for effective management of the entire development process.

Developing a customized process in Razor keeps track of the many different versions and sub-units of the code. Problem Tracking tools, meanwhile, helps developers to manage information about bugs, product problems and future enhancements to the product. Razor provides configuration management and PT solutions in one integrated package. The issues program could be considered the heart of the Razor package. Through the versions program, Razor provides a window interface to all of the standard version control needs such as checking files in or out for edit, parallel development, reporting changes, viewing differences and browsing. The final product is the culmination and integration of innumerable changes spread across a wide number of files over a long period of time.

Razor is a set of integrated tools for issue tracking, problem tracking, version control, revision control, and release management.

Issues are defined as the features and bugs that the developer needs to act upon while developing their code. They form the most critical information that is necessary for the success of a software project.

The Issues tool of the Razor suite provides an integrated way of managing the entire life cycle of an issue from inception to closure through the cycles of code development, deployment, testing, and release. It becomes easier for the developers and managers to quickly track the issues and their associated code artifacts.

Versions: Change Management

The name of the version control and change management tool is Versions. It manages the versions of all types of files, such as ASCII-based and binary files. It captures alll the detailed information for every version or every file, including the name of the developer, name, location and timestamp of the artifact, and the reasons for the change to the artifact. The graphical user interface makes it easy and quick to review the change history, create code branches, or merge from existing branches.

Baselines: Release Management

The Baselines tool enables developers to conveniently create release packages from the graphical interface by selecting appropriate versions of the files or the file sets. It supports the packaging of different types of code files, such as C, C++, C#, Java, and more. The releases can be tagged with specific names, and the tags can be used to recreate the release package in the future.

Attributes of Razor

Razor is a customizable, extremely flexible and highly scalable solution.

• Varying team sizes: Razor can handle small and large sizes teams with equal performance. All the developer activities can be tracked in the view of planned activities. It is easy to determine what is being released and when and which requirements or bugs have been address.
• Tracks all phases of development: Razor is the perfect tool to perform the requirements traceability and coverage through all the phases of development from requirement capturing to release. Issues and Baselines are the tools that take care of the end-to-end project lifecycle. Razor tracks a history of every activity throughout the entire software development lifecycle.
• Parallel and remote development: When the teams are working in a distributed environment, Razor 6 helps in monitoring individual activities in a single place, from identification of issues to release.
• Flexible to adapt to custom processes: Whether the project follows a standard methodology or has its custom-defined lifecycle management processes, Razor 6 can be configured to work for both scenarios without extra effort.
• SLA management: In high stake software development, meeting the SLAs is of utmost importance to the project management team. With strong requirements traceability, it is a handy tool for the PM to determine what is ready for release and what is not.

There is a great story behind Razor

The Razor suite has many success stories from its renowned customer base.

The US Navy has used it for version control and release of programs used for submarines. Razor supported the collaboration of over 300 engineers to build key internal systems.

NASA built their Launch Control Systems for the Space Shuttle program with Razor. Razor was used for managing the development and release of the Checkout and Launch Control System (CLCS) for an engineering staff of more than 200 engineers.

Razor is a highly recommended, affordable, easy-to-learn, and easy-to-use solution for managing your software development activities. With the help of Razor, you can focus on what you do the best, i.e., code development and Razor takes care organizing, managing, tracking, and releasing your software.