The previous contractor on my project had set up a build machine on a computer which they owned. When the contract was up, they kept the computer. The project still needs the ability to do builds of the applications. So my company had planned to just buy the computers from the previous contractor. This plan ran into many roadblocks.So the development manager had a new idea. Why don't we rent virtual space on the prior company's computers to do our builds? This sounds like a good idea in theory. The development manager approached me, and asked me to float this idea to our CM guy so he could contact the previous contractor to determine the feasibility of the task. Our CM guy was busy pushing out software releases. But he said he would get on this task when the software was released.
I got a call from the development manager asking if we had solidified his plan. My answer was that CM was busy but would look into it. Apparently we were running out of time to make a decision on how we were to do builds. So the development manager tasked me with making this happen. I went to the CM guy, and got the contact info for the previous contractor. The CM dude wondered why we could not purchase the old build machines. I did not know the full answer. But I just said we could not and we needed to make progress on a virtual build machine. I tried calling the contact at the old contracting company. Did not get a call back. So I followed up with an e-mail. The sys admin responded that he was busy but could answer any questions via e-mail. I gave him an overview of our needs, and asked whether they could set us up. He responded that this would not be a problem.
Now I am tasked with setting up a build machine on the virtual desktop that the previous contractor will host. This will take me some time as I need to install all the software that the build machine requires. But I should be able to knock this out.
