1. Software Configuration Management (SCM)
Frank Tsui, Orland Karam, and Barbara Bernal, Essential of Software Engineering, 3rd edition, Jones & Bartett Learning. Chapter 11.
Hans Van Vliet, Software Engineering, Principles and Practice, 3rd edition, John Wiley & Sons, Chapter 4.
H. E. Bersoff, Elements of Software Configuration Management. IEEE Transactions on Software Engineering, 10(1):79-87, Jan 1984.
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2. Learning Objectives
To know the concepts of a software configuration management along with its key elements
To understand the main tasks and responsibilities of software configuration management
To be able to write a configuration management plan
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3. First Law of Systems Engineering
No matter where you are in the system life cycle, the system will change, and the desire to change it will persist throughout the lifecycle.
Q: Why?
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4. Configuration Management
Definition: The set of activities that have been developed to manage change throughout the software life cycle. Purpose: Systematically control changes to the configuration and maintain the integrity and traceability of the configuration throughout the system’s life cycle.
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5. Baseline Definition: Specification or product that
has been formally reviewed and agreed upon,
serves as the basis for further development, and
can be changed only through formal change control procedures.
One “official version” at any point in time
Signals a point of departure from one activity to the start of another activity.
Helps control change without impeding justifiable change.
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6. Baseline (Cont.)
Central repository of reviewed and approved artifacts that represent a given stable point in overall system development.
Shared DB for project and kept in consistent state.
Policies allow the team to achieve consistent state and manage the project.
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7. Software Configuration Item (SCI)
Definition: Information that is created as part of the software engineering process.
Examples:
Software Project Plan
Software Requirements Specification
Models, Prototypes, Requirements
Design document
Source code
Test suite
Software tools (e.g., compilers)
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8. Elements of SCM There are four elements of SCM:
Software Configuration Identification
Software Configuration Control
Software Configuration Auditing
Software Configuration Status Accounting
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9. Software Configuration Identification
Provides labels for the baselines and their updates.
Evolution graph: depicts versions/variants.
An object may be represented by variant, versions, and components.
1.4
1.3
1.0
1.1
1.2
2.0
1.1.1
1.1.2
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10. Family of Products A family of products using a component database
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11. Software Configuration Control
Three basic ingredients to SCC
Documentation for formally precipitating and defining a proposed change to a software system.
An organizational body (Configuration Control Board) for formally evaluating and approving or disapproving a proposed change to a software system.
Procedures for controlling changes to a software system.
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12. Software Configuration Control
Why needed?
Not all possible changes are beneficial.
Need a mechanism to control access to different items of the configuration (who can access what).
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13. Access and Synchronization Control
Configuration Object
(Modified Version)
Check-In
Configuration Object
(Baseline Version)
Audit Info
Unlock
Software
Engineer
Project
Database
Ownership Info
Access
Control
Lock
Configuration Object
(Baseline Version)
Configuration Object
Request
Check-Out
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14. Access and Synchronization Control
Configuration Object
(Modified Version)
Check-In
Configuration Object
(Baseline Version)
Audit Info
Unlock
Software
Engineer
Project
Database
Ownership Info
Access
Control
Lock
Configuration Object
(Baseline Version)
Configuration Object
(Extracted Version)
Check-Out
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15. Access and Synchronization Control
Configuration Object
(Modified Version)
Check-In
Configuration Object
(Baseline Version)
Audit Info
Unlock
Software
Engineer
Project
Database
Ownership Info
Access
Control
Lock
Configuration Object
(Baseline Version)
Configuration Object
(Extracted Version)
Check-Out
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16. Access and Synchronization Control
Configuration Object
(Modified Version)
Check-In
Configuration Object
(Baseline Version)
Audit Info
Unlock
Software
Engineer
Project
Database
Ownership Info
Access
Control
Lock
Configuration Object
(Baseline Version)
Configuration Object
(Extracted Version)
Check-Out
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17. Configuration Management Cycle
Customer
Customer generates
a change request
Customer approves changes
Project Manager
Manager assigns change request to software engineer
Dev Team
Software engineer checks out necessary configuration objects
SE checks in modified configuration objects and notifies CM
SE completes necessary changes
Configuration
Manager*
CM prepares new system release for operation if necessary
CM creates new system baseline
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*In charge of administering project database and providing access control to engineers

18. Software Configuration Auditing
Audit in general
Planned and independent evaluation of one or more products or processes to determine conformance or compliance to a set of agreed to requirements.
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19. Software Configuration Auditing
Allow to follow trails, e.g.,
Which changes has been made
Who did those changes, and
Why
Provides mechanism for determining the degree to which the current configuration of the software system mirrors the software system pictured in the baseline and the requirements documentation.
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20. Software Configuration Auditing
Asks the following questions:
Has the specified change been made?
Has a formal technical review been conducted to assess technical correctness?
Has the software process been followed and standards been applied?
Have the SCM procedures for noting the change, recording it, and reporting it been followed?
Have all related SCIs been properly updated?
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21. Software Configuration Auditing
Q: Why needed? A: May help ensure a stopping point for a phase.
May help ensure a stopping point for a phase
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22. Software Configuration Status Accounting
Allows to gather statistics about the system and the development process
Component with most changes
=> Question its quality?
Provides a mechanism for maintaining a record of where the system is at any point with respect to what appears in published baseline.
It may take some time before a change is initiated or completed.
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23. Software Configuration Status Accounting
Why needed?
Ensure that there is progress within the development of the project.
Track updates to baselines.
Provide data for quality improvement
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24. Requirements for SCM
Repository: shared DB for artifacts with controlled access to prevent overwrites.
Version management: Maintain history of changes made to each artifact; provide ability to see how version was created.
Workspace control: Private work space with ability to check out from repository and check in with new version number.
Product modeling and building: Procedure to build the product from artifacts in repository.
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25. SCM Tools Earlier: product oriented tasks, e.g., versions
SCCS, RCS
Concurrent Version System (CVS)
Subversion (SVN)
Git/GitHub
Modern: more functionalities, e.g., process
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26. Lock-Modify-Unlock System*
*B. Collins-Sussman. et al., Version Control with Subversion,
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27. Copy-Modify-Merge System
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28. Copy-Modify-Merge System (Cont.)
                                           
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29. Project Assignment
Complete the configuration management plan for your team.
Due date: Feb 3, 2015
Leader: Analyst
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30. Group Work: SCM Check list
Review memo, grading rubric, report template for SCM plan (course website)
Come up with a 1-page check list for inspection
Leader: V&V
Q: Inspection?
Review-based V&V technique
Looking for specific faults (using check list),
e.g., unitialized variables
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