SE401:  An Overview to Software Configuration Management  

• Overview to Software Configuration Management
• Importance of SCM
• Reasons for changes in software projects
• Assessing impact of changes
• Problems due to uncontrolled changes
• SCM Tasks
• Identifying changes
• Controlling changes
• Ensuring that changes are implemented properly
• Reporting changes to others who might be impacted by the changes
• Benefits of SC

• Basic concept of SCM
• Importance of change management
• What is software configuration
• Configuration in hardware / software context
• Use of tools for configuration
• What are software configuration items (SCI)
• How to define SCI
• Types of SCI
• Basic
• Aggregate
• Relationship between SCIs
• Importance of Impact Analysis
• Requirement traceability and its types
• Relevance of requirement traceability in SCM
• Baselines and its views
• CM view
• SE view
• Concepts of Project repository
• Access control and synchronization control

• SCM Process
• Need for SCM Process
• Objectives of SCM
• SCM Tasks
• SCI Identification
• Change Control
• Version Control
• Configuration Auditing
• Reporting
• Process Tailoring

• Planning SCM
• Contents of SCM Plan
• Intent and scope
• SCM organization
• Configuration items and baselines
• Change control
• Status reporting
• Audits
• Tools
• Special controls
• Schedule and milestones
• Importance of tools
• Roles of SCM
• Project Manager
• Configuration Controller
• Configuration Control Board
• Project Librarian
• Project Team Members
• Auditors
• Implementing SCM effectively
• Buy-in
• Training
• Use of tools
• SCM tradeoff

SE402:  The Tasks in the SCM Process

• Tasks in SCM Process
• CI Identification
• Change Control
• Version Control
• Auditing
• Reporting

• CI Identification
• Identification as core of SCM process & defining the basis for identifying SCIs
• Defining methods to depict the relationship & identification scheme between SCIs
• Identification schemes – Derivation & Baselines
• Defining the method for acquiring SCIs in the project repository
• Tool support for configuration identification

• Change Control

• Reason for changes
• Change control process & relevant phases
• Evaluating change requests
• Implementing changes
• Verifying and releasing changes
• Evaluating change requests - Recognition of the need for a change, change request form, Evaluation of the request & change report by the CCB, Generating a change report, impact analysis, CCB & Engineering change order (ECO)
• Implementing changes – Assigning work, Making modifications (checking out and in SCIs
• Verifying and releasing changes - Testing and formal technical reviews, Checking in of SCIs, Building and releasing the changed configuration
• Auditing the process and the product
• Roadblock in Change control process
• Range of formality of change control
• Levels of change control – Individual, Project-level and Formal or Product-level control
• Tool support-Change Control, Impact Analysis, Access and Synchronization Control, Supporting Build and Release

• Version Control
• The need for version control & problems faced without version control
• Types of versions (Revisions, variations, and variants)
• Use of an identification scheme & Version mapping
• Planning for version control
• Storage of version and build information & multiple versions of SCIs (Separate files, Deltas, Conditional compile)
• Approaches for storing multiple versions & Pros and cons of the approaches
• Tool support for version control

• Configuration Auditing
• Objectives of Configuration Auditing
• Types of configuration auditing
• Functional configuration audit (FCA)
• Physical configuration audit (PCA)
• Formal qualification review (FQR)
• Audits versus formal technical reviews
• Organization, Roles, Activities involved in conducting audits
• Planning & conducting configuration auditing
• Audits for complex & small projects
• Tool support for the configuration-auditing task

• Reporting
• The SCM process and Rationale for reporting
• People who need to know
• Planning for the SCM reporting task
• Defining the required reports (Levels of reporting, Coverage)
• Defining data collection procedure (Change-related events, Change log, Logging data)
• Establishing procedures to generate reports
• Tool support & evaluating tools for SCM reporting task