Nothing stops you from doing concurrent development - it's just that the merging process is more involved.
In any development environment if a developer is working on a file he must lock the file to prevent others from working on it. However, if someone does need to change the file while somebody else locked it, he needs to wait when the file becomes unlocked and then merge his changes to the central repository. This is how all developers work - whether it's .NET, Java or something else.
In Aware IM it's more cumbersome, even though the concepts are the same - while developers have multiple files, Aware IM has only one file (BSV representing the configuration). So merging becomes a must. Several developers can easily work concurrently - each on its own copy of the BSV, which can be either in the same Configuration Tool (multiple business space versions) or each working with their own Configuration Tools.
One developer must be responsible for maintaining "the version" - that is, the BSV that is taken to production. This BSV has to be formed by integrating the BSV's of other developers into this central production BSV. So the real question is how difficult this integration is.
The bad news is that Aware IM does not have wonderful integration tools that let you see the differences between versions and merge automatically or semi-automatically (that modern version control systems have).
The good news is that the Copy/Paste functionality between business space versions is easily available and can save lots of integration worries. More good news is that the next release that is coming soon includes full support for XML export and import (these features have already been implemented and are in testing now). Why is this important for integration?
Using XML export/import an integrator can easily export two BSV's into XML and compare them using 3rd party tools - there are plenty wonderful tools available. Then the integration can be done by merging changes at the XML level in a text file. The resulting XML can then be imported into the production BSV.
