Software Configuration Management

Software configuration Management (SCM) is an umbrella activity that is applied throughout the software process, because change can occur at any time.

Software Configuration Management (SCM) Process

The Five basic SCM tasks are:                                                             

(1) Identification of Object (2) Version Control (3) Change control (4) Configuration auditing and (5) Reporting

(1) Identification of Object – To control and mange SCIs each of them must be separately named and then organized using object-oriented approach. The SCIs can be classified in to two kinds of objects—(A) Basic objects & (B) Aggregate objects

(A) Basic objects: It is a “unit of text” created by software engineer during analysis, design, coding or testing phases.

(B) Aggregate objects: It’s a collection of basis objects and other aggregate objects.

For example – Design specification is an aggregate object.Each object has a set of unique features for distinct identification. Every object should have :- (a) An unique name (b) A description of the object including its SCI type e.g. Document, program, or data, a project identifier and version information (c) A list resources, which are entities that are processed, provided or required by the project.

(2) Version Control – It combines various tools and procedures to manage and control different versions of SCI objects that are created during the software engineering process.

(3) Change control – Change control includes human procedures and automated tools to control the reasons for change. The following processes take place when a situation of change occurs:

(A) Change Request: A change request is first submitted and then it is evaluated to asses its--- Technical merits, Potential side effects, Subsystem and the cost for implementing the change.

(B) Change Report: After the evaluation is done, a change report is created that is submitted to the change control Authority/Board (CCA/CCB). CCA or CCB is a group who are responsible for evaluating the change report and makes the final decisions on the status and priority of the change. This group generates an Engineering Change Order (ECO) for each approved change.Engineering Change Order (ECO) – It consist of the following:

* The description of the change to be made

* Constraints that has to be taken care of and

* Criteria for review and audit

(C) Check Out & Check In: The object to be changed is “checked out” of the project database, the decided changes are made and appropriate SQA (Software Quality Assurance) activities are performed. The object is then “checked in” the project database and appropriate version control mechanisms are used to create the next version of the software.

(4) Formal technical reviews (FTR) & Configuration auditing – These two activities are required to ensure that the change made to the software is properly implemented.Formal technical review is apart of software Quality Assurance (SQA) procedures. The objectives of FTR are:

* To uncover errors in functions, logic or implementation

* To verify that the software under review should meet its requirement

* To make the project more manageable

* It consists of walkthroughs, inspection and round-robin procedures

Software configuration audit consists of the following auditing procedures:

* To check whether the changes specified in the ECO (Engineering Change Order) has been properly made and to check if any additional modules are added.

* To check whether formal technical reviews are conducted for the assessment of technical correctness.

* To check whether SE standards are properly followed.

* To check whether the change is highlighted in the SCI (Software Configuration Items).

* To check whether all the related SCIs are properly updated.

(5) Configuration Status Reporting (CSR) – It’s an SCM task which summarizes the activities done so far which includes the following:

(a) The report of all the activities done.

(b) The report on the persons involved in the above reported activities.

(c) The report on the time and date when the reported activities were accomplished.

(d) The report on various other factors or objects that will be affected due to the reported activity.


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