Chapter 7

Software Configuration Management

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 Software Configuration
Management
Change is inevitable when computer software is built
Change increases the level of confusion when you and other
members of a software team are working on a project.
Confusion arises when changes are not analyzed before they are
made, recorded before they are implemented
The art of coordinating software development to minimize confusion
is called configuration management .

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 Software Configuration
Management
Configuration management is the art of identifying, organizing and
controlling modifications to the software being built by a
programming team
The goal is to maximize productivity by minimizing mistakes.
Software Configuration Management (SCM) is an umbrella activity
that is applied throughout the software process because change can
be occur at any time.

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 SCM activities are Developed
to
1. Identify change
2. Control Change
3. Ensure that change is being properly implemented
4. Report the change to others who may have an interest

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Difference between SCM and
Software Support
• Support is a set of software engineering activities that occur after
software has been delivered to the customers and put into operation
• Software configuration management is a set of tracking and control
activities that are initiated when a software engineering project
begins and terminates only when the software is taken out of
operation .

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 software process
1. Programs (both source level and executable format)
2. Documents
3. Data
• The items that comprise all information produced as part of the
software process are collectively called a software configuration
• As the software process progresses, the number of software
configuration items (SCIs) grows rapidly
• A hierarchy of SCIs is created as each SCI creates new SCIS.
• There will be little confusion if any SCI are involved but there is always
a factor called Change that generates a lot of confusion
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 Software Process
• Change May occur at anytime, for any reason
• First Law of System Engineering states “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”

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Fundamental Source of Change
• New business or market conditions dictate changes in product
requirements or business rules
• New customer need demands
• Business growth/downsizing causes the change
• Budgetary or scheduling constraints cause a redefinition of the
system or product.
• Software Configuration Management is a set of activities that have
been developed to manage change through the life cycle of
Computer Software.
• SCM can be viewed as a software Quality Assurance Activity that is
applied throughout the software
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 Baseline
• Change is a fact in software Development
• Customers want to modify the requirements
• Developers want to modify the technical approach
• Mangers want to modify the project strategy
• A baseline is a software configuration management concept that
helps you to control change
• Before a software configuration item becomes a baseline, changes
maybe made quickly and informally.

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 Baseline
• Once a baseline is established, changes can be made, but a specific
formal procedure must be applied to evaluate in every each change.

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 Baseline
• Software engineering task produce one or more SCIs
• After SCIs are reviewed and approved they are placed in a project
database (Known as software repository )
• When a member of a software engineering team wants to make a
modifications to a baseline SCI, it is copied from the project database
into the Engineering’s private work space
• However, this extracted SCI can be modified only if SCM controls are
followed.

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Software Configuration Items
• Software configuration item as information that is created as part of
the software engineering process.
• SCI could be considered to be a single section of a large specification
or one test case in large suite of tests
• SCI is all or part of a work product (e.g a document , an entire suite of
test cases, or a named program component )

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Software Configuration Items
Source
code
Design
Document
SRS
Deliverable of
Large
Software
Development

Test User
Case Manual

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Software Configuration Objects
• SCIS are organized to form configuration objects that may be
cataloged in the project db with a single name
• A configuration object has a name, attributes, and is connected to
the other objects by relationships
• Design Specification, Data Model Component , Source Code, and
Test Specification are each identified separately

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 Configurations Objects

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Software Configuration Items
• Each of the objects is related to the others as shown by the arrows
• A curved arrow indicates a compositional relation
• That is, Data Model and ComponentN are part of the object Design
Specification
• A double-headed straight arrow indicates an interrelationship.
• If a change were made to the Source Code object, the
interrelationships enable you to determine what other objects (and
SCIs) might be affected.

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 SCM Repository

• In the early days of software engineering, software configuration items

were maintained as paper documents.
This approach was problematic for many reasons:
(1) finding a configuration item when it was needed was often difficult,
(2) determining which items were changed, when and by whom was often
challenging,
(3) constructing a new version of an existing program was time consuming
and error prone
(4) describing detailed or complex relationships between configuration
items was virtually impossible.
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 SCM Repository
• Today, SCIs are maintained in a project database or
repository.
• The SCM repository is the set of mechanisms and data
structures that allow a software team to manage change in
an effective manner.
• It provides the obvious functions of a modern database
management system by ensuring data integration functions
of a modern database management system by ensuring data
integrity, sharing, and integration.
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 The SCM Process
• The software configuration management process defines a series of
tasks that have four primary objectives:
(1) to identify all items that collectively define the software
configuration,
(2) to manage changes to one or more of these items,
(3) to facilitate the construction of different versions of an
application, and
(4) to ensure that software quality is maintained as the configuration
evolves over time.

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Layers in Software Configuration
Management

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 Identification of Objects

• To control and manage software configuration items, each should be

separately named and then organized using an object-oriented
approach.
• Different types of objects are identified - Basic Objects, aggregated
objects
• Each object has a set of distinct features that identify it uniquely: a
name, a description, a list of resources, and a “realization.”

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 Identification of Objects

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 Identification of Objects
• The identification scheme for software objects must recognize that
objects evolve throughout the software process.
• Before an object is baselined, it may change many times, and even
after a baseline has been established, changes may be quite frequent.
• It is possible to create an evolution graph for any object.

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 Identification of
Objects
• The evolution graph describes the change history of an object, as
illustrated .
• Configuration object 1.0 undergoes revision and becomes object 1.1.
• Minor corrections and changes result in versions 1.1.1 and 1.1.2,
which is followed by a major update that is object 1.2.
• The evolution of object 1.0 continues through 1.3 and 1.4, but at the
same time, a major modification to the object results in a new
evolutionary path, version 2.0.
• Both versions are currently supported

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 Change Control
• A change request is submitted and evaluated to assess technical merit,
potential side effects, overall impact on other configuration objects and
system functions, and the projected cost of the change.
• The results of the evaluation are presented as a change report, which is used
by a change control authority (CCA)—a person or group that makes a final
decision on the status and priority of the change.
• An engineering change order (ECO) is generated for each approved change.
• The ECO describes the change to be made, the constraints that must be
respected, and the criteria for review and audit.
• The object to be changed can be placed in a directory that is controlled solely
by the software engineer making the change.
A version control system updatesSEFthe
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 Change Control

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 Version Control
• Version Control Combines procedures and tools to manage different version
of configuration objects that are created during the software process.
• A version control system implements or is directly integrated with four
major capabilities:
1. A project database that stores all relevant configuration objects,
2. A version management capability that stores all version of
configuration object,
3. A make facility that enables the software engineer to collect all
relevant configuration objects, and
4. Construct a specific version of the software.
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 Version Control
• A number of version control systems establish a set – a collection of all
changes (to some baseline configuration) that are required to create a
specific version of the software.
• “Changes set” captures all changes to all files in the configuration along
with reason for changes and details of who made the changes and when.
• A number of named change set can be identified for an application or
system.
• This enables a software engineer to construct a version of the software
by specifying the changes set (by name) that must be applied to the
baseline configuration.

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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.
• One representation of the different versions of a system is the
evolution graph.
• Each node on the graph is an aggregate object, that is, a complete
version of the software.

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 Version Control

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 Version Control
• Each version of the software is a collection of SCIs (source code,
documents, data), and each version may be composed of different
variants.
• To illustrate this concept, composed of entities 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5
• Entity 4 is used only when the software is implemented using color
displays.
• Entity 5 is implemented when monochrome displays are available.
Therefore, two variants of the version can be defined:
(1) entities 1, 2, 3, and 4;
(2) entities 1, 2, 3, and 5.
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 Version Control
• Another way to conceptualize the relationship between entities, variants
and versions (revisions) is to represent them as an object pool .
• Referring to F the relationship between configuration objects and entities,
variants and versions can be represented in a three-dimensional space.
• An entity is composed of a collection of objects at the same revision level.
• A variant is a different collection of objects at the same revision level and
therefore coexists in parallel with other variants.
• A new version is defined when major changes are made to one or more
objects.

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 Version Control

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 Configuration Audit
• How can we ensure that the change has been properly implemented?
(1) formal technical reviews
(2) the software configuration audit.
• The formal technical review focuses on the technical correctness of
the configuration object that has been modified.
• The reviewers assess the SCI to determine consistency with other
SCIs, omissions, or potential side effects.
• A formal technical review should be conducted for all but the most
trivial changes.

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 Configuration Audit
• Software configuration audit complements the technical review.
• The audit asks and answers the following questions:
• Has the change specified in the ECO been made? Have any additional modifications
been incorporated?
• Has a technical review been conducted to assess technical correctness?
• Has the software process been followed and have software engineering
standards been properly applied?
• Has the change been “highlighted” in the SCI?
• Have SCM procedures for noting the change, recording it, and reporting it been
followed?
• Have all related SCIs been properly updated?
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 Configuration Audit
• In some cases, the audit questions are asked as part of a formal
technical review.
• However, when SCM is a formal activity, the SCM audit is conducted
separately by the quality assurance group.

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 Configuration status
reporting
• Configuration status reporting also called status accounting is an SCM
task that answers the following questions:
(1) What happened?
(2) Who did it?
(3) When did it happen?
(4) What else will be affected?

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 SCM Features
Versioning.
Dependency tracking and change management.
Requirements tracing.
Configuration management.
Audit trails.

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