Software Quality Assurance

Chapter 8 Software Configuration Management

After completing this chapter, you will be able to:

• – understand the software configuration management activities as they are recommended by ISO 12207, IEEE 828, and the CMMI^®;
• – understand how the change control process is used;
• – learn about code control and its branching strategies;
• – see how configuration management is possible in a very small project or organization;
• – list what is included in a configuration management plan;
• – understand what is recommended by the IEEE 730 standard for the project software quality assurance plan.

8.1 Introduction

In many industries, the result of a production process is a product that you can see, touch, and measure. In software, code is the most important deliverable and it is an intangible product for most people. To give it the most visibility, it is necessary to document it and communicate its characteristics at each step of its development. For the same reasons, during its life cycle, it will be possible to review it, improve it, and expand the documents supporting it. This progression originates from change requests, omissions, defects, and problems encountered when developing the product. Also, when software must reside on a processor that receives data and controls a process, changes to the hardware can result in change requests to the software. As long as the software supports a business process of the organization, modifications will need to be made to keep it current with the ...