Software configuration management

Software configuration management (SCM), a.k.a.
software change and configuration management (SCCM), is the software engineering practice of tracking and controlling changes to a software system. It is part of the larger cross-disciplinary field of configuration management (CM). SCM includes version control and the establishment of baselines.

Goals

The goals of SCM include:

• Configuration identification – Identifying configurations, configuration items and baselines.
• Configuration control – Implementing a controlled change process. This is usually achieved by setting up a change control board whose primary function is to approve or reject all change requests that are sent against any baseline.
• Configuration status accounting – Recording and reporting all the necessary information on the status of the development process.
• Configuration auditing – Ensuring that configurations contain all their intended parts and are sound with respect to their specifying documents, including requirements, architectural specifications and user manuals.
• Build management – Managing the

…

Source: Wikipedia