Summary

6.5 Summary

CM is the discipline that ensures that the state of the software at any given time is known and reconstructable. It comprises three basic elements: identification, accounting, and control.

CID permits the uniform naming of each software component and product, down to the lowest separable level.

Baselines, specific points of departure for a new set of development activities and changes, are constructed by the CA portion of CM. CA maintains and records the status of each baseline and its history. Baselines mark major CI status levels during the SLC. They are usually associated with major milestone events (such as a formal review) in the development cycle.

CC ensures that all approved changes are made to the software. It has the equally significant obligation to ensure that no changes are made that have not been properly approved. It must be noted that as technology evolves and software development techniques and methods evolve, it is often necessary to configuration manage the development and testing platforms, as well as the intermediate and end products.

A CI is any product of the software development process that is to be configuration managed. Each CI must have a unique identifier to differentiate it from all other software development products and other instances of the item itself.

Ultimate access to the SLC products, so that changes can be made, is through the software library, which is the repository of the official, approved issues of all documents and code. Changes to the products of the software development process come from two main sources: defect correction and enhancements. Without an effective change processing mechanism, the software can easily become unidentifiable and unmanageable.

Coordination of changes and their intercomponent effects is the task of the CCB. The CCB is responsible for determining that all effects of the proposed change have been anticipated and reconciled. Especially important is the control that the CCB exercises over the creation of new instances or versions of the various software system products. Once CM has been imposed on the project, it is the CCB that has the authority to approve changes and permit the updating of the various issues of the products. It is the responsibility of the software quality practitioner to monitor the functioning of the CCBs.