SWEBOK states :
“Software Configuration Management (SCM) is the discipline of identifying the configuration of software at distinct points in time for the purpose of systematically controlling changes to the configuration and of maintaining the integrity and traceability of the configuration throughout the system life cycle. “
With six subareas:
- Management of SCM Process
- Software Configuration Identification
- Software Configuration Control
- Software Configuration Status Accounting
- Software Configuration Auditing
- Software Release Management and Delivery
We are now into the support services of software engineering. This knowledge area deals with organizational management and processes which cover the entire life cycle of software products. According to IEEE/EIA Standard 12207: “The configuration management process is a process of applying administrative and technical procedures throughout the software lifecycle to; identify and define software items in a system; control modifications and releases of the items; record and report the status of the items and modification requests; ensure the completeness, consistency, and correctness of the items; and control storage, handling, and delivery of the items”.
SCM deals with how to control change efficiently and allow auditing of those changes. Next time we will look at how lean and agile deals with theses issues.
Allen