Software Configuration
Management
Slides derived from Dr.
Sara Stoecklins notes
and various web
sources.
What is SCM?
SCM goals
Manage the changes to documents,
programs, files, etc.
Track history
Identify person responsible for each
change, and reasons
Recover (roll back to) previous versions as
necessary
Maintain sets of compatible versions of
files (configurations)
Several related concepts & terms
Source code vs. configuration management
both called SCM
Revision control version control
Web content management
Work flows
Definition according to Wiki
Configuration management is the management of
features and assurances through control of
changes made to hardware, software,
firmware, documentation, test, test fixtures
and test documentation of an system,
throughout the development and operational
life of a system.
Source Code Management or revision control is
part of this.
Definition According to Dennis
Configuration and change management is
the tracking of the state of the
artifacts (hardware, software,
firmware, documentation, test, test
fixtures and test documentation of an
system) throughout the development of
a system.
Configuration Management
Defined
The management and control of all any
changes made to any and all features of
the software development activity. This
includes hardware, software,
documentation, and firmware.
Configuration management can be done with
a tool. These tools range in price from
$0 to $400,000. It depends on how many
features you wish to manage and how well
you want to manage them.
Why do we care?
Remember Apollo 13.
If a change needs to be made to ANY artifact
then when you put them all together again
you had better make it right. Suppose you
have a programming error and need to change
it, recompile and use that software.
What version of the hardware did you use for
the original? What version of the OS, DB,
compiler? What version of the file
management software? All that should be
the same to recompile. So we must manage.
Why do we care?
Suppose we change requirements and get
a new use case diagram. Do other things
have to change? Will we have more
actors, attributes, screen?. So even
when the documentation of the system
changes as it evolves, we must track
that, too.
What are the artifacts?
Hardware ANY hardware that is used by the
system.
Software system software (OS, DB, Compiler,
etc), supporting software (sorters, mergers,
utilities), application software (you wrote or
you use).
Firmware ANY firmware used by the system.
Documentation deliverables for development,
documentation maintained for the operation
of the system, etc.
Configuration Management
Includes
Change management - of changes to the
specifications of a potential software system
Documentation management of all documentation
including defects, specification, testing,
purchasing, emails, memos, agendasevery single
documentation detail
Hardware/firmware configuration management - of
all the hardware and firmware.
Source code management of changes to the source
code including the application code, operating
system, compilers, utilities, database
management system, communication system,
middleware, etc.
Configuration Management
Standards
e.g.
IEEE Std. 828-1998 IEEE Standard for Software Configuration
Management Plans
ANSI/EIA-649-1998 National Consensus Standard for
Configuration Management
MIL-STD-973 Military Standard for Configuration
Management[1] (cancelled, but still good reference)
GEIA Standard 836-2002 Configuration Management Data
Exchange and Interoperability
Source Code Management
One of the important parts of
configuration management
For any development project you need
to have a SCM plan
SCM is closely connected with team
workflow
Workflow defines how SCM is done
How tools are used
Complicating factors for SCM
Multiple versions
Multiple branches (e.g., development, bug
fix, old releases)
Multiple authors
Concurrent activities
Geographical distribution
Disk crashes, human errors
SCM Model Differences
Centralized vs. Distributed
Pushed vs. pulled updates
Handling of concurrent updates
Atomic commit operations (transactions)
File locking
Version merging
There are many SCM tools
RCS
CVS
Subversion (svn)
Git
Mercurial (hg)
Bazaar (bzr)
many more
Key terms and concepts
File vs. configuration
Version/revision numbers
Timestamps
Releases
Repository
Working copy, or sandbox
Baseline/trunk/mainline/master
Branches/forks
More terms and concepts
Checkout has multiple meanings
Get local working copy (or make it visible?)
Locked, or not?
Configuration versus file
Export/import
Commit
Conflict (superficial, or deep)
Merge
Centralized vs. distributed
SCM models
Centralized SCM
Operations require server
single point of failure
[Link]
Decentralized SCM
Anyone can be a server
[Link]
How decentralized SCM
works.
Start with a global repository
Clone it
Can make cheap local clones via
links
[Link]
Changes can be pushed back
upstream
[Link]
published to web
[Link]
or shared with trusted peers
[Link]
Benefits of decentralization
Non-intrusive micro-commits
Detached operation (off net)
No single point of failure
Backups are trivial
Very flexible
... ?
Problems with decentralization
No locking
No single authoritative version
Relies on clock synchronization
Requires greater discipline, imposed by
team workflow rules
Example workflow models
Suitable for use with
Git or other
distributed SCM tool.
Agile workflow
All developers are equal, all push changes to same repository.
Repository is always up to date with the current wave front.
tp://[Link]/book/[Link]
UML Sequence Diagram
for an Agile team.
Agile workflow
[Link]
Managed repository
Only one person can push changes to the blessed repository.
Means
. less chance for accidents, but we now have a bottleneck.
tp://[Link]/book/[Link]
An alternate way of sharing a repository, using branches.
[Link]
Linux-like hierarchical model
[Link]
=529&history=false¬ification=false
Android Git Workflow
[Link]
/submit-patches/workflow
Two kinds of review, verification by multiple
testers before admission to repository.
In this course
If you use an IDE such as VB Studio or Eclipse
then you can use a SCM plug-in
Several are available.
However, if you are not using an IDE you will need
to use command-line operations, scripts, or a
separate GUI tool for version control.
For Spring 2010 we will use Git.
So, you will need to learn it.
During your career you will probably need to
learn and use several others.
