Software configuration management strategies and rational. Software configuration management is the process of identifying and defining the software configuration items in a system, controlling the release and change of these items throughout the system lifecycle, recording and reporting the. Example systems include ansible, bcfg2, cfengine, chef, otter, puppet, quattor, saltstack, terraform, pulumi and vagrant. It allows software tester to manage their testware and test outputs using same configuration management mechanisms. Configuration management is a change control process. Software engineering software project management spm software engineering system design strategy software engineering jackson system. Parallel development strategies for software configuration management. Wthout it, the effectiveness of the rest of your processes will be in. Prepare the configuration management strategy prince2.
A better model for software configuration management that is clearly understood and is scaleable is the subject of this paper. Configuration management can be used to maintain os configuration files. Configuration management cm is a systems engineering process for establishing and. Software configuration management scm a practical guide. Configuration management cm is a systems engineering process for establishing and maintaining consistency of a products performance, functional, and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life.
During the project planning stage and perhaps as part of your own test plan make sure that configuration management procedures and tools are selected. Wherever you are in the process of implementing software asset management sam in your business, this web page provides information to help you go. Software configuration management plan introduction. For those implementing software configuration management disciplines can use the sample configuration management plan attached. This guide defines and explains what software configuration management is, provides guidelines on how to do it, and defines in detail what a software configuration management plan should contain. Programme quality management strategy and information management strategy if applicable.
Prepare the configuration management strategy prince2 primer. The configuration management strategy is derived from the. Software configuration management linkedin slideshare. Most of the time the eco process is enormously more cumbersome than software development could use and still stay productive. Use tools to automate testing, build, and integration. Other tools use a push model, where a central server triggers updates to managed servers. Benefits there are many benefits of a configuration management system, but perhaps the most appealing ones to businesses would be organization, reliability. Configuration management cm focuses on establishing and maintaining consistency of a products performance, and its functional and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life. The acronym scm is also expanded as source configurat. Request pdf software configuration management strategies and rational clearcaser this second article of our series looks at the process of designing a. The configuration management of such a project is straightforward, since in general there is just one latest and greatest version of the software, which forms the context in which all development work takes place. For those planning software configuration management activities, this standard provides guidelines into the aspects which must be considered.
The first edition of software configuration management strategies and rational clearcase established itself as the definitive single source for guidance on both scm best practices and the markets leading product, ibm rational clearcase. Software configuration management plan introduction scope and intent of scm activities the primary focus of the software configuration management scm is to identify and control major software changes, ensure that change is being properly implemented, and report changes to any other personnel or clients who may have an interest. Software configuration management patterns software configuration management structure is comprised of a series of patterns that create an organization chart for developing software. Software configuration management 3 set of activities that have been developed to manage change throughout the life cycle of computer software 4. Software configuration management scm question and. The strategic management discipline originated in the 1950s and 1960s. To increase automation and win the war on configuration drift, it organizations should prepare a solid configuration management strategy and evaluate tools specifically based on how easily they onboard and support users. Baselines a baseline is a software configuration management concept that helps us to control change.
Parallel development strategies for software configuration. It is abbreviated as the scm process in software engineering. The cmp provides information on the requirements and. Ibmrationals clearcase unk product launch at ibmrational software development conference in. White has a decade of handson experience with software configuration management tools and methods. Its the only one ive seen that eliminates the need to label manually. In software engineering, software configuration management is the task of tracking and. What is configuration management in software testing. During his career, he has deployed scm solutions in the industrial controls and telecommunications industries, many of them to meet iso 9000 and sei cmm objectives. Changes may be required to modify or update any existing solution or to create a new solution for a problem. It is a fundamental operations technique that captures valuable information for processes such as incident management, problem management, change management, maintenance, safety and risk management. This involves identifying and reporting change, controlling and implementing change properly, and more.
Vendors offer diverse means to help incentivize use and standardize on a given tool. Other challenges connected to change management process include compliance, asset and resource management, communication and project management, risk management, auditing and analysis, and governance the biggest component in the process is a change in mentality and approach, which are linked to the basic strategy dictated by management. Software configuration management 1 arunnima b s 2. Configuration management is an increasingly important foundation for a successful tech platform. The configuration management strategy or procedure currently being used within your organisation should be applied or modified to suit this particular project. Theres no guarantee that 200 infrastructure managers and four. This information includes computeraided design cad data, models, parts information, manufacturing instructions, requirements, notes and documents. In software engineering, software configuration management scm or sw cm is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software, part of the larger crossdisciplinary field of configuration management. A guide to understanding the foundations of software configuration management scm and applying this knowledge to ibmrationals clearcase. Configuration management cm is the ongoing process of identifying and managing changes to deliverables and other work products. The biggest mistake project managers can make is to start planning before thinking through the. If something goes wrong, scm can determine what was changed and who changed it. Software configuration management is defined as a process to systematically manage, organize, and control the changes in the documents, codes, and other entities during the software development life cycle. Software configuration management scm is a set of processes, policies, and tools that organize the development process.
Software configuration management best practices 1. This how to guide outlines the essential concepts of cm, including. Configuration manager owns the configuration management process, and is accountable for drafting the plan as well. Software configuration management scm is a supportingsoftware life. Unk a soup to nuts guide full of practical advice for practitioners looking to manage project change with the most popular scm tool in the market. Configuration management control is accomplished by utilizing the cmdb, a centralized configuration management database, or a series of databases that provide central, logical access to configuration data, containing relevant information such as the configuration items and their attributes, baselines, documentation, changes, and relationships. The cm process is widely used by military engineering organizations to manage changes throughout the system lifecycle of complex systems, such. If the remoteconfigx parameters are not empty, the program attempts to load the configuration data from the remote configuration management i. Software configuration management can be functionally broken out into the areas of 1 version control, 2 document control, 3 change management 4 build management, and 5. Manage change with software configuration management scm. Good leaders in the tech space will want to know what it takes to implement it. Product data management pdm is the use of software to manage product data and processrelated information in a single, central system.
This configuration management plan cmp applies to all software, hardware, commercial off the shelf cots products, documentation, physical media, and physical parts used by era and the era contractor development team to support various development activities, including engineering, implementation, testing, and configuration management. Scm helps in identifying individual elements and configurations, tracking changes, and version selection, control, and baselining. Development should be done with as few codelines as possible. The primary goal is to increase productivity with minimal mistakes. Software configuration management scm at its core is about managing change.
In this case, software configuration would be the framework that is intertwined with tools such as cloud computing and other forms of configuration management database, or cmdb for short. A baseline is an agreedupon description of the attributes of a product at a point in. Scm practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines. Software engineering system configuration management whenever a software is build, there is always scope for improvement and those improvements brings changes in picture. Establish a configuration management strategy to guide. Configuration management is a topic that is very complex.
The discipline draws from earlier thinking and texts on strategy dating back thousands of years. Software configuration management an overview sciencedirect. Software configuration management in software engineering. The deadline is rapidly approaching and the team is assembled, ready to implement the recent revision changes made to both the system hardware and software. Configuration management is one of the few processes that overarch all other process and service lifecycle phases in itil v3. Software configuration management strategies and ibm.
Configuration management of software intensive systems. Configuration management strategy change and version control. This fully updated second edition systematically addresses the latest clearcase and clearquest innovations, while offering even deeper insight into scm strategy and management. Software configuration management scm is a software engineering discipline consisting of standard processes and techniques often used by organizations to manage the changes introduced to its software products. List of books available on the subject of configuration management of software intensive systems.
Branching and merging strategies should be carefully planned and. If a configuration is working well, scm can determine how to replicate it across many hosts. Configuration management is the practice of tracking operational items and their attributes. Some configuration management tools use a pull model, in which an agent installed on the servers runs periodically to pull the latest definitions from a central repository and apply them to the server. The software configuration management scm process is looked upon by practitioners as the best solution.
Software has its own need for configuration management see section 3. Ssqc use cases and implementing application lifecycle management parallel development strategies for software configuration management. The era is a largescale, comprehensive system designed to provide preservation of, and access to, electronic federal. It is used primarily when software requirements change. Software project managers routinely face the challenge of developing parallel configurations of software assets. Contents 2 what is scm why scm scm process role of configuration manager scm tools 3.
Software configuration management is the discipline of identifying the configuration of software at distinct points in time for the purpose of systematically controlling changes to the. Streambased branching is the only strategy ive seen that eliminates almost all manual cm. The configuration management plan cmp is developed to define, document, control, implement, account for, and audit changes to the various components of this project. Cm streamlines the delivery of software and applications by automating the build out of systems quickly and efficiently. Software engineering system configuration management. What is configuration management software testing books. So, advanced planning is very important to make this work. In software engineering, software configuration management is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software, part of the larger crossdisciplinary field of configuration management. Strategies for configuration management in a case environment. Software asset management is the business strategy for reclaiming budget and maximizing savings by actively controlling and automating procurement, usage, and deployment of software licenses. The software configuration management process traces changes and verifies that. Each pattern represents a step where code is either written, tested, or integrated into another pattern and eventually released as a new version of the software.
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