Software Configuration Management

In this article, the software engineering  discipline called Software Configuration Management (SCM) will be explained.

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So, what is the SCM?

It is a software-engineering discipline comprising the tools and techniques through processes and/or methodologies that a company uses to manage change to its software envirnoment. Good practices among the software development area define the SCM. For all of the software projects that are under development or in a more advanced phase, enhancement on the reliability and quality of software is made by:

• Providing structure for identifying and controlling documentation, code, interfaces, and databases to support all life-cycle phases

• Supporting a chosen development/maintenance methodology that fits the requirements, standards, policies, organization, and management philosophy

• Producing management and product information concerning the status of baselines, change control, tests, releases, audits, etc.

There are some practices suggested when working under a SCM:

  • Identify and store artifacts in a secure repository.
  • Control and audit changes to artifacts.
  • Organize versioned artifacts into versioned components.
  • Organize versioned components and subsystems into versioned subsystems.
  • Create baselines at project milestones.
  • Record and track requests for change.
  • Organize and integrate consistent sets of versions using activities.
  • Maintain stable and consistent workspaces.
  • Support concurrent changes to artifacts and components.
  • Integrate early and often.
  • Ensure reproducibility of software builds.

But, how did all of this started?

All this information was based on Pearsonhieghered, from the first chapter on their called “Sotware Engineering”, by Ian Sommerville.

 


Software Configuration Management

According to Techopedia, the Software Configuration Management is a way in which some of the organizations act when new changes are implemented in the company. It’s a software control management, it helps the company to control the new systems. The Software Configuration Management has some advantages, such as:

  • Reduced redundant work.
  • Effective management of simultaneous updates.
  • Avoids configuration-related problems.
  • Facilitates team coordination.
  • Helps in building management; managing tools used in builds.
  • Defect tracking: It ensures that every defect has traceability back to its source.

(Retrieved from: https://www.techopedia.com/definition/24583/software-configuration-management-scm).

The Software Configuration Management exists since 1950, when the Configuration Management was integrated to the software development. At the beginning, all the processes were made by manual operation. With the time, the SCM became more popular because of the implementation of software in daily life. SCM now is a tool to manage processes and help people to adapt to changes when new systems appear.

If you  want to continue reading where does the Software Configuration Management emerge, go and visit the following link: https://rmzkrieg.wordpress.com/2016/08/30/scm-where.