Software Configuration Management

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how software configuration management (SCM) is an important discipline in professional software development and maintenance and how the importance of SCM has increased as programs have become more complex, long-lasting, and time critical. It aims to critically evaluate the evolution of SCM, as well as the obstacles and progress achieved by this particular segment of software engineering. The paper uses a column page layout.

Outline:
Abstract
Introduction
Foundation Years of Software Configuration Management
Progress and Obstacles - SCM in the Past Decade
Process Support
Versioning and Release
Change Control
The Tools - Third Party and Open-Source
Transitions
Conclusion

From the Paper:

"The mid 90's paved the way for much better and more powerful SCM tools. Although much of them were still reliant on old methods, these tools had revved up their ability by nearly two folds in terms of automation from a mere cost effective in-house development. [2, 3] In the late 90's, the evolution of SCM in general was characterised mainly by technological issues, better understanding of the technology and experience acquired by the Software Engineering community towards the complexity of a complete SCM solution. On an Industry level SCM was seen largely as a mature, reliable and ideal technology for software development. "

Sample of Sources Used:

• [1] Katherine E. Harvey. Summary of the SEI Workshop on Software Configuration Management. Software Engineering Institute Technical Report, pages 2-5, December, 1986.
• [2] Susan A. Dart. The Past, Present and Future of Configuration Management. Software Engineering Institute, Technical Report, pages 5-15, July, 1992.
• [3] Rebecca E. Grinter. Understanding the Role of Configuration Management Systems in Software Development. Academic Journal, Pages 1-2, April, 1996
• [4] Gregor Joeris. Change Management Needs Integrated Process and Configuration Management. Pages 126-132, [Circa 1997].
• [5] Reidar Conradi and Bernhard Westfechtel. Version Models for Software Configuration Management, Pages 1-23, June, 1998.

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