COEN 286: Software Quality Assurance and Testing -- fall, 2001

Configuration Management

Prof. John Noll

Santa Clara University

1. Why Configuration Management

• Associate failures and fixes with specific configurations and versions.
• Improve quality by controlling change.

2. Elements of CM

2.1 Identification

Definitions:

Configuration

A set of components and interfaces among them that comprise a system.

Component

Smallest atomic unit of a system (usually equivalent to a file).

Version

A snapshot of a component or configuration's state at a point in time.

Delta (change)

The set of operations (insert, delete) that transform one version of a component/configuration into another. Usually, we think of transforming one version into the very next following version, but deltas, in theory, can be applied to any version to obtain any other.

A component or configuration version can be identified in two ways:

1. Baseline id + deltas.
2. Snapshot id.

2.2 Control

An administrative process (policy and mechanism) for changing a product:

• Preciptating change;
• Preparing a change;
• Evaluating a change;
• Approving a change.

Change control process:

     failure --------+         Change                              Change
                     |---> preciptation ---> (Analysis) ---> preparation
     feature request-+                                                 |
          A                                                            v
          |                                                       Change
          |                                                       proposal
          |                                         Change             |
          +-------- Accounting <--- (Development)<--control <----------+
                                                   board
                                                     | denied
                                                     v
                                                  Archive

2.3 Audit

Verification and validation (Boehm's sense).

2.4 Accounting

• Tracking and reporting of changes as they evolve from requests to implementations.
• Accounting also provides process visibility, for improvement.