

Ask HN: do non-dev staff at your company use version control? - callmeed

We have 8 people at our company, half of which are non-developers. Over the last year, I've got everyone using SVN to keep local repos of our products. Customer service people can setup new customers knowing they always have the latest version. They can also edit copy if necessary.<p>Now, I'm starting to use Git for some new projects. I'm wondering if its too much to ask non-dev people to also learn/use Git in the future.<p>Thoughts? Do non-dev people at your company use version control?
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sqs
Right now the non-dev people at my company use FVC, but we are trying hard to
get them to use Subversion (simpler than Git and adequate for their needs).
Version control is so important that everybody should be using it.

FVC = Filename Version Control. SpecificationsDraft.doc, Specifications1.doc,
Specifications-FINAL.doc, Specifications-FINALFINAL.doc, Specifications-
FINAL3.doc etc. :)

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shabda
[http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.666973.1...](http://discuss.joelonsoftware.com/default.asp?biz.5.666973.13)

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olefoo
I've setup a system using mercurial where a versioned archive shadows a
directory of assets (html snippets and images) that is edited by customers and
support staff. It works, although the rollback interface is a commandline
rather than a web page at this time.

In my experience the term 'version control' might as well be martian to most
customers and non-tech staff.

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michaelbuckbee
From a non-dev perspective I'm not sure they would see much of a difference in
complexity between SVN and GIT.

It might be helpful if you could specify if the "non devs" are also "non
contributors".

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gaius
Yep, tho' they probably aren't aware that they are, it's built into the
intranet that they store all their Office documents on. This is probably the
best way to do it.

