Our project has always done some sort of configuration management. It used to be that we threw everything into Rational Clearcase. However there came a time when the customer mandated that we move all documents into a product called Documentum.Now I did not like Clearcase that much. However Clearcase was great compared to this new Documentum. We hired a person to help us organize all our documents into Documentum. We also hired a Documentum consultant. The documents were moved over. Success was declared. The only difference I found was that it was now hard to access our documents. Years later we moved to SharePoint for document storage and sharing. At least it has a clean web interface.
The current system is scheduled to be replaced by a new system to be developed. One of the tools that the customer requires us to use in the new system is Documentum. That gives me the shivers. Documentatum, in case you did not know, is a content management system from EMC. You check files in and our like source code control. There is access control provided by the product. The latest version hosts the product in a web environment.
Documentum has many APIs which can be accessed from web servers, using Java, by FTP, and a whole lot more. The core feature of the product is its repository. The system is a three tier one, with the repository being a fancy type of database. There is a way to search the repository using their Documentum Query Language (DQL). There is also a Documentum certification. Who knows? Maybe I will try to study up and pass the darn thing. I still suspect this product to add pain to the system.
