BOBEV
Consulting
The Home of Effective Software Configuration Management (SCM)
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Software Configuration Management is: a management tool that applies an engineering discipline to manage the evolution of a software system from concept through to system retirement. The primary focus of this tool/discipline is to ensure the repeatability, traceability, and integrity of the system being developed and produced Many very well known people, as well as standards making organizations, have tried to define Configuration Management (CM) and Software Configuration Management) SCM) (See Brad Appleton's list of SCM Definitions). Many are incomplete, or misleading, or they don't go far enough, or they are too narrow, or they focus only on the objectives of SCM, or go astray in some other manner. We have developed a definition of SCM that we think corrects previous mistakes. It includes the fact that SCM is a System Engineering discipline, a Program Management tool and includes the watchwords of SCM – Repeatability, Traceability, and Integrity. Some may think it is still incomplete or misleading, but it is ours, we believe in it, have been practicing it, and are happy with it. So who cares what others think? Not us we say, because we can take comfort in being right! :-) What Others Have Said:What Mike Daniels Said in 1985: “Configuration Management
is a management tool that defines the product and controls changes to that
product.” Mike goes on to say, “Configuration Management is a way to
communicate. … If we use configuration management properly, we should know
what we are supposed to build or produce and we should know at any point
in time what we are building or producing. And, once we finish, we should
know what we have produced or built. … The bottom line is –
configuration management is an effective, prudent, and logical function of
project management with a set of rules. … The goal is to set up the simplest
system possible to achieve the desired result of control. If you can make the
system so it’s totally automatic and transparent, then you have achieved a
perfect system.” What Susan Dart Said in 1990/92: “Software CM is a
discipline for controlling the evolution of software systems.” What Brad Appleton Said in 1998: “Software Configuration Management is the process of identifying, organizing, controlling, and tracking both the decomposition and recomposition of: software structure, functionality, evolution, and teamwork. In short, SCM is the "glue" between software artifacts, features, changes, and team members; it forms the ties that bind them all together from concept to delivery and beyond.” |
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