1. Software Configuration Management (SCM)
By,
Muhammad Imran Hashim
SQA Engineer
VisualSoft (Pvt) Ltd.

2. Objectives
To explain the importance of software configuration management (SCM)
To describe the key SCM activities namely SCM planning, change management, version management and system building
To describe the functions of SCM tool Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0

3. Topics covered SCM Definitions SCM Process overview SCM Plan
SCM Functions
System Building
Basic SCM Concepts
SCM Tool (Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0)
VSS concepts

4. Definitions
SCM systems typically offer version control and team programming features.
Software Configuration management is a method of bringing control to the software development process.

5. Configuration management
New versions of software systems are created as they change:
For different machines/OS;
Offering different functionality;
Tailored for particular user requirements.
Configuration management is concerned with managing evolving software systems:
System change is a team activity;
CM aims to control the costs and effort involved in making changes to a system.

6. Configuration management
Involves the development and application of procedures and standards to manage an evolving software product.
CM may be seen as part of a more general quality management process.
When released to CM, software systems are sometimes called baselines as they are a starting point for further development.

7. SCM Process Overview The process is divided in three parts:
Firstly SCM function should identify the
configuration items and document their
characteristics.
Once configuration items are identified and their
characteristics are documented then SCM system
should control the changes to those characteristics.
Third, the SCM system should record the change
management process.

8. SCM Plan
The best place to record how SCM should be performed for each project is in the SCM plan.
The SCM plan document following :
What SCM activities are to be done.
How they are to be done.
Who is responsible for doing specific
activities.
When they are to happen.
What recourses are required.

9. SCM Planning
Defines the types of documents to be managed and a document naming scheme.
Defines who takes responsibility for the CM procedures and creation of baselines.
Defines policies for change control and version management.
Defines the CM records which must be maintained.

10. SCM Planning
Describes the tools which should be used to assist the CM process and any limitations on their use.
Defines the process of tool use.
Defines the CM database used to record configuration information.
May include information such as the CM of external software, process auditing, etc.

11. SCM planning
All products of the software process may have to be managed:
Specifications;
Designs;
Programs;
Test data;
User manuals.
Thousands of separate documents may be generated for a large, complex software system.

12. SCM Functions Configuration Identification Configuration Control
Status Accounting (Recording & Reporting)
Audits & Reviews

13. SCM standards
CM should always be based on a set of standards which are applied within an organisation.
Standards should define how items are identified, how changes are controlled and how new versions are managed.
Standards may be based on external CM standards (e.g. IEEE standard for CM).
Some existing standards are based on a waterfall process model - new CM standards are needed for evolutionary development.

14. Change management
Software systems are subject to continual change requests:
From users;
From developers;
From market forces.
Change management is concerned with keeping track of these changes and ensuring that they are implemented in the most cost-effective way.

15. Version management tools
Version and release identification
Systems assign identifiers automatically when a new version is submitted to the system.
Storage management.
System stores the differences between versions rather than all the version code.
Change history recording
Record reasons for version creation.
Independent development
Only one version at a time may be checked out for change. Parallel working on different versions.

16. Delta-based versioning

17. System building
Building a large system is computationally expensive and may take several hours.
Hundreds of files may be involved.
System building tools may provide
A dependency specification language and interpreter;
Tool selection and instantiation support;
Distributed compilation;
Derived object management.

18. Component dependencies

19. Baselines
Baseline is an SCM concept that helps to control change. When configuration item is complete it is handed over to the configuration management team for safekeeping. The configuration management team will check whether the item that is given to them is complete per the SCM plan and assigns to a baseline to it. So once a baseline is established for a configuration item, then that item can be changed only through a formal change management process.

20. Check-in/ Check-out
The process of copying the item from the controlled
library is called Check-out process.
The process of reviewing, approving and moving an item into the controlled environment is called check- in.

21. Change request analysis, approval,etc.
Software Configuration Managemet
Check-in
Check-out
Test, Review,
Approve
Configuration Item
Revised
Configuration
Item
Modifications

22. Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0
SCM Tool
Microsoft Visual Source Safe 6.0

23. Visual Source Safe 6.0
Microsoft VSS helps to manage your projects, regardless of the file type (text files, graphics files, binary files, sound files, or video files) by saving them to a database.
VSS project organization makes team coordination easy.

24. Visual Source Safe 6.0
Visual SourceSafe 6.0 is a member of the Visual Studio 6.0 family of development products which includes:
Visual Basic
Visual C++
Visual FoxPro
Visual InterDev
Visual J++
.Net

25. Visual Source Safe 6.0 Keeps all sources together in one place.
Keeps history of all files.
Controls access to resources.
Physically safe resources – files and its history are
stored in the VSS incremental database which is easy to
backup.
Security by managing access rights to projects for all
users.
Versioning.

26. VSS Administrative Tasks
Create new database
Add/Delete users
Change passwords
Allow multiple checkouts
Lock database
Rights by projects

27. VSS Client Tasks Create Projects (Folders) Add Files View / Edit
Set Working Folder
Check Out
Check In
Show History
Get Latest Version
Label Version
View Differences

28. Thank you