Software Engineering: A Practitioner’s Approach,

6/e

Chapter 27
Change Management copyright © 1996, 2001, 2005
R.S. Pressman & Associates, Inc.

For University Use Only

May be reproduced ONLY for student use at the university level
when used in conjunction with Software Engineering: A Practitioner's Approach.
Any other reproduction or use is expressly prohibited.

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 The “First Law”

No matter where you are in the system

life cycle, the system will change, and the
desire to change it will persist throughout
the life cycle.
Bersoff, et al, 1980

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 What Are These Changes?
changes in
business requirements
changes in
technical requirements
changes in
user requirements other
documents

software models
Project
Plan
data
Test
code
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 The Software Configuration

programs documents

The pieces data

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 Baselines
 The IEEE (IEEE Std. No. 610.12-1990) defines a baseline
as:
 A specification or product that has been formally reviewed and
agreed upon, that thereafter serves as the basis for further
development, and that can be changed only through formal change
control procedures.
 a baseline is a milestone in the development of software
that is marked by the delivery of one or more software
configuration items and the approval of these SCIs that
is obtained through a formal technical review

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 Baselines
modified
SCIs
Project database

approved
Software Formal
engineering SCIs technical SCIs
tasks reviews

stored

SCIs

extracted
SCM SCIs
controls

BASELINES:
System Specification
Software Requirements
Design Specification
Source Code
Test Plans/Procedures/Data
Operational System

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 Software Configuration Objects
Data model

Design specification

data design
architectural design
module design
interface design

Component N

interface description
algorithm description
Test specification PDL

test plan
test procedure
test cases

Source code

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 SCM Repository
 The SCM repository is the set of mechanisms and data
structures that allow a software team to manage change
in an effective manner
 The repository performs or precipitates the following
functions [FOR89]:
 Data integrity
 Information sharing
 Tool integration
 Data integration
 Methodology enforcement
 Document standardization

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 Repository Content
use-cases
business rules analysis model source code
business functions scenario-based diagrams object code
organization structure flow-oriented diagrams system build instructions
information architecture class-based diagrams
behavioral diagrams Construction
design model Content
architectural diagrams
Business interface diagrams
Content component-level diagrams
technical metrics test cases
test scripts
test results
quality metrics
Model
Content
V&V
Content

Project
Management
project estimates Content
project schedule
SCMrequirements Project Plan
change requests Documents SCM/SQAPlan
change reports
SQArequirements System Spec
project reports/audit reports Requirements Spec
project metrics Design Document
Test Plan and Procedure
Support documents
User manual

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 Repository Features
 Versioning.
 saves all of these versions to enable effective management of product releases and to permit
developers to go back to previous versions
 Dependency tracking and change management.
 The repository manages a wide variety of relationships among the data elements stored in it.
 Requirements tracing.
 Provides the ability to track all the design and construction components and deliverables
that result from a specific requirement specification
 Configuration management.
 Keeps track of a series of configurations representing specific project milestones or
production releases. Version management provides the needed versions, and link
management keeps track of interdependencies.
 Audit trails.
 establishes additional information about when, why, and by whom changes are made.

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 SCM Elements
 Component elements—a set of tools coupled within a file management system
(e.g., a database) that enables access to and management of each software
configuration item.
 Process elements—a collection of procedures and tasks that define an
effective approach to change management (and related activities) for all
constituencies involved in the management, engineering and use of
computer software.
 Construction elements—a set of tools that automate the construction of
software by ensuring that the proper set of validated components (i.e., the
correct version) have been assembled.
 Human elements—to implement effective SCM, the software team uses a set
of tools and process features (encompassing other CM elements)

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 The SCM Process
Addresses the following questions …
 How does a software team identify the discrete elements of a software
configuration?
 How does an organization manage the many existing versions of a program
(and its documentation) in a manner that will enable change to be
accommodated efficiently?
 How does an organization control changes before and after software is
released to a customer?
 Who has responsibility for approving and ranking changes?
 How can we ensure that changes have been made properly?
 What mechanism is used to appraise others of changes that are made?

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 The SCM Process
Software
Vm.n

reporting

configuration auditing

version control

change control

identification

SCIs

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 Version Control
 Version control combines procedures and tools to manage different
versions of configuration objects that are created during the software
process
 A version control system implements or is directly integrated with four
major capabilities:
 a project database (repository) that stores all relevant configuration objects
 a version management capability that stores all versions of a configuration object
(or enables any version to be constructed using differences from past versions);
 a make facility that enables the software engineer to collect all relevant
configuration objects and construct a specific version of the software.
 an issues tracking (also called bug tracking) capability that enables the team to
record and track the status of all outstanding issues associated with each
configuration object.

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 Change Control

STOP

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 Change Control Process—I
need for change is recognized

change request from user

developer evaluates

change report is generated

change control authority decides

request is queued for action

change request is denied
user is informed
change
change control
control process—II
process—II

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 Change Control Process-II
assign people to SCIs

check-out SCIs

make the change

review/audit the change

establish a “baseline” for testing

change
change control
control process—III
process—III

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 Change Control Process-III
perform SQA and testing activities

check-in the changed SCIs

promote SCI for inclusion in next release

rebuild appropriate version

review/audit the change

include all changes in release

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 Auditing
Change
Requests SQA
Plan
SCIs

SCM Audit

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 Status Accounting

Change Change
Requests Reports ECOs
SCIs

Status Accounting

Reporting
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 SCM for Web Engineering-I
 Content.
 A typical WebApp contains a vast array of content—text,
graphics, applets, scripts, audio/video files, forms, active page
elements, tables, streaming data, and many others.
 The challenge is to organize this sea of content into a rational set
of configuration objects (Section 27.1.4) and then establish
appropriate configuration control mechanisms for these objects.
 People.
 Because a significant percentage of WebApp development
continues to be conducted in an ad hoc manner, any person
involved in the WebApp can (and often does) create content.

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 SCM for Web Engineering-II
 Scalability.
 As size and complexity grow, small changes can have far-reaching and
unintended affects that can be problematic. Therefore, the rigor of
configuration control mechanisms should be directly proportional to
application scale.
 Politics.
 Who ‘owns’ a WebApp?
 Who assumes responsibility for the accuracy of the information on the
Web site?
 Who assures that quality control processes have been followed before
information is published to the site?
 Who is responsible for making changes?
 Who assumes the cost of change?

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 Content Management-I
 The collection subsystem encompasses all actions required to create and/or acquire
content, and the technical functions that are necessary to
 convert content into a form that can be represented by a mark-up language (e.g., HTML, XML
 organize content into packets that can be displayed effectively on the client-side.
 The management subsystem implements a repository that encompasses the following
elements:
 Content database—the
database—the information structure that has been established to store all content objects
 Database capabilities—functions that enable the CMS to search for specific content objects (or
categories of objects), store and retrieve objects, and manage the file structure that has been
established for the content
 Configuration management functions—the functional elements and associated workflow that
support content object identification, version control, change management, change auditing,
and reporting.

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 Content Management-II
 The publishing subsystem extracts from the repository, converts it
to a form that is amenable to publication, and formats it so that it
can be transmitted to client-side browsers. The publishing
subsystem accomplishes these tasks using a series of templates.
 Each template is a function that builds a publication using one of
three different components [BOI02]:
 Static elements—text, graphics, media, and scripts that require no further
processing are transmitted directly to the client-side
 Publication services—function calls to specific retrieval and formatting
services that personalize content (using predefined rules), perform data
conversion, and build appropriate navigation links.
 External services—provide access to external corporate information
infrastructure such as enterprise data or “back-room” applications.

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 Content Management

configurat ion object s

dat abas e Cont ent

Management
Sys t em

t emplat es

HTML code client -side brows er

+ s cript s

server-s ide

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 Change Management for WebApps-I
classify t he
request ed change

class 1 change class 4 change

class 2 change class 3 change

acquire relat ed object s develop brief writ t en develop brief writ t en

assess impact of change descript ion of change descript ion of change

t ransmit t o all t eam t ransmit t o allst ake-

members for review holders for review
changes
required
in relat ed
object s

furt her furt her

evaluat ion evaluat ion
is required OK t o make is required OK t o make

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 Change Management for WebApps-II

check out object (s )

t o be changed

make changes
des ign, cons t ruct , t es t

check in object (s )
t hat were changed

publis h t o WebApp

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