Control Changes to Software

A key challenge when you're developing software- intensive systems is that you must cope with multiple developers organized into teams , possibly at different sites, working together on multiple iterations, releases, products, and platforms. In the absence of disciplined control, the development process rapidly degenerates into chaos.

Coordinating the activities and the artifacts of developers and teams involves establishing repeatable workflows for managing changes to software and other development artifacts. This coordination allows a better allocation of resources based on the project's priorities and risks, and it actively manages the work on those changes across iterations. Coupled with developing your software iteratively, this practice lets you continuously monitor changes so that you can actively discover and then respond to problems.

Coordinating iterations and releases involves establishing and releasing a tested baseline at the completion of each iteration. Maintaining traceability among the elements of each release and among elements across multiple, parallel releases is essential for assessing and actively managing the impact of change.

Controlling changes to software offers a number of solutions to the root causes of software development problems:

1. The workflow of requirements changes is defined and repeatable.

2. Change requests facilitate clear communications.

3. Isolated workspaces reduce interference among team members working in parallel.

4. Change rate statistics provide good measurements for objectively assessing project status.

5. Workspaces contain all artifacts, which facilitates consistency.

6. Change propagation is assessable and controlled.

7. Changes can be maintained in a robust, customizable system.