Check-in Policy Packs present and future

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I know I have been away from the blogs in the last month and I really have no excuse for it, so I am not going to try to make one. Today I want to talk about the policy pack we recently released as part of our PowerTools and the vision that I have for them.

You can check out the latest PowerTool release here: https://go.microsoft.com/?linkid=5422499

So why do a policy pack? The vision as it is today is to have a higher level of abstraction for check-in policies so in a way we can allow you to effectively manage and develop them. A check-in policy pack is a container of check-in policies created and distributed by an entity, for example, the one we released is the PowerTool Check-in Policy Pack (although you cannot see that name anywhere yet). In the future, a pack will always consist of the following elements:

· Check-in Policies signed by the entity who produced them

· Guidance for using those check-in policies

· Link to the code (if the entity decides to make it open source)

 

What does this give us? Well it gives you a way to know where the policies you have installed within your organization are coming from (you can imagine the UI displaying the packs and underneath them the policies). Now you can clearly distinguish from Microsoft shipped policies, policies you have developed in house and policies you have gotten from the internet.

It gives you a guidance paper from the creator on how and when to use the policies. This proves very helpful when the policies are CPU intensive or when their configuration has a series of requirements. Lastly, making the source code available to the entire community allows for enhancements to the policy and encourages other entities to assist in the creation of policies.

The future? The vision calls for us to start looking at ways to provide more value to you in these check-in policies so we are going to start looking to collaborate with companies that are interested in providing check-in policies to their clients.

You can envision a new C# book shipping a CD with a Policy Pack of their best 10 policies, or a speaker at a conference handing out a subset of policies that integrate their best practices. Reality is that if you can have a way to enforce in code your ideas then it is a great medium for a check-in policy- and subsequently your pack.

I thought I would end with a call to action to you the community. First, let me know if you are interested in partnering with us or contribute some policy packs. Second, If you are writing a book, giving a talk, or have a great idea for a check-in policy and need any documentation from us or just where to start type of guidance, send me an email: mariorod@microsoft.com and we will gladly help you out.

Third, share the ones you currently have (of course only the code and not the binaries in order to avoid viruses and other malignant attacksJ). We will start working on some site where you can post them but in the meantime try to get the word out or send me an email and I will blog about it. The ones we released will be up in CodePlex or code gallery very soon. However you do it just share that wealth with others.

As always feedback and thoughts are welcomed.

mario