Best Practices in Software Configuration Management – SCM Best Practices Guide
Best Practices in Software Configuration Management Abstract When deploying new SCM (software configuration management) tools, implementers sometimes focus on perfecting fine-grained activities, while unwittingly carrying forward poor, large-scale practices from…
Read more »
What Is Software Configuration Management, its importance & how to implement it?
Software engineers usually find coding to be the most satisfying aspect of their job. This is easy to understand because programming is a challenging, creative activity requiring extensive technical skills. It can mean getting to “play” with state-of-the-art tools, and it provides almost instant gratification in the form of immediate feedback. Programming is the development task that most readily comes to mind when the profession of software engineering is mentioned.
That said, seasoned engineers and project managers realize that programmers are part of a larger team. All of the integral tasks, such as quality assurance and verification and validation, are behind-the-scenes activities necessary to turn standalone software into a useful and usable commodity. Software configuration management (SCM) falls into this category—it can’t achieve star status, like the latest “killer app,” but it is essential to project success. The smart software project manager highly values the individuals and tools that provide this service.
This chapter will answer the following questions about software configuration management.
Read more »
The symptoms of our software development malaise
Software development has traditionally suffered from producing end products with a definite lack of inherent quality. The symptoms of this quality lack are listed here:
- Software development projects are often delivered late and over budget.
- Often the delivered product does not meet customer requirements and is never used.
- Software products simply do not work right.
As we look into the symptoms of our software development malaise, five principal issues related to software development arise.
Lack of Visibility
Software is conceptual in nature. Unlike a bridge, a building, or another physical structure, it is not easy to look at software and assess how close it is to completion. Without strong project management, “software is 90% complete 90% of the time.” Through the adoption of SCM policy and the definition of the configuration management model of the software under development, all CIs, components, and subcomponents are immediately visible for versions, releases, and product families.
Read more »