Discipline: Configuration & Change Management
This discipline explains how to control and synchronize the evolution of the set of Work Products composing a software system.
Relationships
Main Description

The purpose of this discipline is to:

  • Maintain a consistent set of work products as they evolve;
  • Maintain consistent builds of the software;
  • Provide an efficient means to adapt to changes and issues and re-plan work accordingly;
  • Provide data for measuring progress

Although it is important to keep up to date versions and configurations of all work productd, the primary work product of concern is the Artifact: Build.

It is assumed that the project has some form of configuration management system, such as CVS, to maintain version and configuration information and enable collaborative development of the system. Without this, all but the most trivial of development will be virtually impossible.

This discipline spans the entire lifecycle. Every other discipline relies upon the configuration and change management discipline to maintain a consistent, up to date, set of work products and to prioritize and track changes to those work products throughout the lifecycle.

Configuration and change management is done by everyone on the development team. Because of the importance and pervasiveness of this discipline, configuration and change management guidance is associated with tasks and work products in all other disciplines. The following section provides a list of related guidance.

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