Ch 13: Configuration Management & Change

Chapter 13 — Configuration Management & Change

(Sommerville Ch. 25)

Why Software Change is Inevitable

• Business environment changes (new regulations, markets)
• Errors discovered after delivery
• New platforms and technologies require adaptation
• Organizational changes affect requirements
• New stakeholders have new needs

Key Definitions

Term	Definition
Baseline	A reviewed and agreed-upon specification or product that serves as the basis for further development and can only be changed through formal change control
Codeline	A sequence of versions of source code with later versions derived from earlier versions
Mainline	A sequence of baselines representing different versions of a system

Configuration Management Activities

1. Version management — track versions of components; prevent conflicts
2. System building — assembling component versions into an executable system
3. Change management — process for assessing and implementing changes
4. Release management — preparing software for external release

Approving a Change — Significant Factors

1. Business impact — does this change address a real business need?
2. Cost of change — development effort, testing, documentation
3. Risk — could this break existing functionality?
4. Dependencies — does this change affect other components or teams?
5. Urgency — is this a critical bug fix or a nice-to-have?
6. Stakeholder impact — who is affected if the change is or isn’t made?