Software Configuration Management

When you build computer software, change happens. And because it happens, you need to
control it effectively. Software configuration management (SCM) is a set of activities that
are designed to control change by identifying the work products that are likely to change,
establishing relationships among them, defining mechanisms for managing different
versions of these work products, controlling changes that are imposed, and auditing and
reporting on the changes that are made. The following topic categories are presented:

software configuration management (SCM) is the task of tracking and controlling

changes in the software. Configuration management practices include revision control and
the establishment of baselines.

 Defect tracking - Making sure every defect has traceability back to the source.
 Configuration identification - Identifying configurations, configuration items and
baselines.
 Configuration control - Implementing a controlled change process. This is usually
achieved by setting up a change control board whose primary function is to approve
or reject all change requests that are sent against any baseline.

Configuration management is an integral part of the software development process across

all phases of the life cycle

Objectives of SCM:
Define the term configuration item
Explain how configuration control maintains the integrity of configuration items
Define the term baseline.
Specify how the implementation of changes can be tracked
Define the simultaneous update problem.
List the most important considerations in evaluating change requests.
Describe the procedures of a configuration audit.

Glossary:
Baseline:- The point at which a document or other object becomes a configuration item.
Configuration item: - A document or other object placed under configuration control.

SCM Tools
Concurrent Version System (CVS)
Sub Version
Visual Source Safe

SCM is the process of:

 Identifying and defining items in the system
 Controlling the change of these items throughout their lifecycle
 Recording and reporting change requests
 Verifying completeness and correctness of items.
 Configuration Audits to verify conformance to specification or other contractual
requirements
Problems without SCM:
 A bug that was fixed at great expense suddenly reappears
 A developed and tested feature is mysteriously missing
 A tested Program does not work

These kind of Issues arise due to:

Simultaneous Updates
When two or more programmers work on the same program separately. So the last ones
changes can destroy other work.
Shared Code
When bug is fixed in code shared by many programmers some of them are not notified.
Versions:
If bug is fixed in one source then it should be propagated to other sources as well so that all
sources can be up-to-date

Main Purpose of CM is:

 Identification of Work Products or Items that are more likely to change

 Controlling the Changes made to those Configuration Items e.g: how many changes
went into latest version of this product
 Status Accounting: Recording and reporting the status of component and change
requests e.g: how many files were affected by fixing this one bug
 Audit and Reviews: to check the completeness and consistency among components