The discipline of controlling configuration changes for the sake of the system, maintaining configuration integrity and traceability throughout the system's life cycle, and identifying system configurations at different points in time (ber97). Is a supporting software life cycle process (IEE12207.0-96)
In IEEE6.10.12-90, configuration management is formally defined as: applying technical and management guidance and supervision to: identify and document the functional and physical characteristics of configuration items, control changes to these characteristics, record and report the change processing process and implementation status, verification, and compliance with specified requirements.
Key Activities: Configuration Identification, Change Control, Status Reporting, and Configuration Auditing
Concepts related to configuration management:
Configuration items
A collection of hardware, software, or both, specified for the purpose of configuration management and treated as a separate entity during the configuration management process.
Configuration library
A set of controlled software and related documentation (IEEE610.12-90) that assists software development, use and maintenance, which plays an instrumental role in software release management and delivery activities.
Configuration management activities and processes
Mainly includes formulating configuration management plan, configuration identification and establishing baseline, establishing configuration management system, version management, configuration status report and configuration audit.
configuration management system
It is an important part of software engineering.
The purpose is to strengthen the quality control in the software development process by underestimating the software configuration management rules and providing a standardized software configuration item management software system, enhance the controllability of the software development process, and ensure that the software configuration management items are complete, clear, consistent and Traceability.
baseline
A uniquely identified set of requirements, designs, source code documents, and corresponding executable code, construction documents, and user documentation form a baseline.
Before a baseline is established, the product owner can make changes to the product quickly and informally. After the baseline is established, changes are controlled through formal procedures for evaluating and validating changes.
Develop a configuration management plan
1. Basic steps for preparing configuration management plan:
When developing a software configuration management process plan for a given project, it should be consistent with the context of the organization, applicable constraints, generally accepted guidelines, and the nature of the project.
Key activities covered include:
software configuration identifier
Software configuration control
Software Configuration Status Report
Software configuration audit
Software release management and delivery
2. Main contents of the configuration management plan:
Including configuration management software and hardware resources, configuration item plan, baseline plan, delivery plan, backup plan, configuration audit and review, change management, etc.
The Change Control Board (CCB) approves the plan.
Configuration identification and baseline establishment
1. Basic steps
Configuration identification is the function of the configuration administrator, including the following:
1. Identify software configuration items that need to be controlled.
2. Assign a unique identifier to each product and its components and related documentation.
3. Define the important characteristics of each configuration item and identify its owner.
4. Identify components, data and product acquisition points and criteria.
5. Establish and control the baseline.
6. Maintain the relationship between document and component revisions and product versions.
Basic principles: Baseline configuration is open to software developers for reading; non-baseline configuration items are open to PM, CCB and related personnel.
2. The purpose of establishing a baseline and its application in project implementation
Establish a configuration management system
1. Basic steps for establishing a configuration management solution
1. Set up a configuration management plan construction team
member:
Technical Support Specialist
Cooperate with management technology experts
Configuration Management System User Representative
2. Understand and estimate the target organization
It is led by configuration management technical experts and cooperates with the participation of management system user representatives to provide basic information and coordinate with the team leader to conduct in-depth investigations of relevant personnel to obtain more comprehensive data.
3. Evaluation of configuration management tools and their providers
4. Develop an implementation plan
Necessity and influencing factors, personnel organization and division of labor, schedule and risk management
5. Define the configuration management process
Through the investigation and evaluation of the target organization, the existing configuration management process is defined. Configuration management technical experts further analyze it and develop new processes based on conventional configuration management methods.
Afterwards, based on the functions of the selected configuration management tool, the automatable links in the new process are handed over to the configuration management tool, and other links are controlled by the newly formulated configuration management specifications.
6. Implementation of pilot projects
Within a certain risk range, field operations are conducted to determine whether the selected configuration tools and the formulated configuration management specifications can meet the needs of the target organization.
7. Full implementation
The configuration management process confirmed and corrected by the pilot project can be applied and implemented in various projects and related work links of the target organization, and ultimately the configuration management process can be scheduled and standardized.
2. Create a configuration library
Configuration library type
1. Dynamic library
The development library, the software engineer's workspace, is controlled by the engineer.
2. Controlled library
The main library or system library is used to manage the current baseline and control changes to the baseline.
3. Static library
A software repository that archives published baselines.
4. Backup library
Including making copies of different versions of the software and associated architecture, data and documentation. Make timely backups at various points.
Configuration library construction mode
Build databases by configuration item type
Tools for building configuration libraries
Version management
1. Configuration item status transition rules
Status: Draft, Official, Revised
2. Configuration item version number identification
3. Configuration item version control
The purpose is to save all versions of configuration items according to certain rules to avoid version loss or confusion, and to quickly and accurately find any version of a configuration item.
change control
1. Change application
Relevant personnel such as the project manager fill out the change application form, explain the content of the change, the reason for the change, the configuration items affected by the change, the workload and the person implementing the change, and submit it to the CCB.
2. Change assessment
Whether the changed content is reasonable.
Whether the scope of the change is correct and well thought out.
Whether the affected configuration items have been fully considered and whether they need to be changed at the same time.
Whether the workload estimate is reasonable.
If there is a change to the implementation plan, evaluate whether the implementation plan for the baseline change is reasonable.
The CCB decides whether to accept the change and informs relevant personnel of the decision.
4. Change verification and confirmation
The project manager designates personnel to test or verify the changed configuration items, such as walkthroughs, reviews, etc.
The project manager should submit the changes and verification results to the CCB team leader for approval, who will confirm whether the changes have been completed as required.
5. Change release
The configuration administrator will notify relevant personnel of the changes and results and keep records.
Configure status reporting
1. Configure status report content
Configuration status report is the operation record of configuration items to report the progress of software development activities to managers.
Tracked content: product description records, the status of each controlled software component, the content and status of each build version release, each baseline content, configuration verification records, change status records, and the installation status of all unknown configuration items .
2. Status description
The report should focus on reflecting the status of the current baseline configuration items as a reference for development progress reports.
Configure auditing
1. The role of implementing configuration auditing
Its main function is to serve as a supplementary means of change control to ensure that a certain change requirement has been effectively implemented.
2. Function configuration audit
1. The development of configuration items has been successfully completed.
2. The configuration items have reached the specified performance and function-specific characteristics.
3. The operation and support documents of the configuration items have been completed and meet the requirements. (IEEE-610)
3. Physical configuration audit
1. Each built configuration item complies with the corresponding technical documentation.
2. Configuration items correspond to the information in the configuration status report.
May include auditing system specifications for completeness, auditing functionality and audit reports, understanding actions taken for non-compliance, comparing architectural design and detailed design components for consistency, reviewing module lists to determine compliance with approved coding standards, auditing manual formats , Compliance with the system function description when complete, etc.
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