Software Configuration Management (Anne Hass)

Configuration, "to form from or after," derives from the Latin com-, meaning "with" or "together," and figurare, "to form." It also means "a relative arrangement of parts or elements." Configuration management therefore refers to managing a relative arrangement of parts or elements. It's as simple as that. Configuration management, as we know it today, started in the late 1960s. In the 1970s, the American government developed a number of military standards, which included configuration management. Later, especially in the 1990s, many other standards and publications discussing configuration management have emerged.

In the last few years, the growing understanding of software development as a collection of interrelated processes has influenced work on configuration management. This means that configuration management is now also considered from a process point of view.

There are many definitions of configuration management and many opinions on what it really is. This chapter describes the definition on which this book is based. In short:


 * Configuration management is unique identification, controlled storage, change control, and status reporting of selected intermediate work products, product components, and products during the life of a system.

Anne Hass; What is Configuration Management from Software Configuration Management: Principles and Practices; Addison-Wesley, December 2002.