Software Configuration Management

Software Configuration Management (SCM) is a set of activities designed to control change by identifying the work products that are likely to change, establishing relationships among them, defining mechanisms for managing different versions of these work products, controlling the changes imposed, and auditing and reporting on the changes made.

In other words, SCM is a methodology to control and manage a software development project.

The goals of SCM are generally:

• Configuration Identification- What code are we working with?
• Configuration Control- Controlling the release of a product and its changes.
• Status Accounting- Recording and reporting the status of components.
• Review- Ensuring completeness and consistency among components.
• Build Management- Managing the process and tools used for builds.
• Process Management- Ensuring adherence to the organization's development process.
• Environment Management- Managing the software and hardware that host our system.
• Teamwork- Facilitate team interactions related to the process.
• Defect Tracking- making sure every defect has traceability back to the source