Sommerville-Software-Engineering-10ed

754 Chapter 25 ■ Configuration management
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System releases include executable code, data files, configuration files, and documentation.
Release management involves making decisions on system release dates, preparing all
information for distribution and documenting each system release.
Further Reading
Software Configuration Management Patterns: Effective Teamwork, Practical Integration. A relatively
short, easy-to-read book that gives good practical advice on configuration management practice,
especially for agile methods of development. (S. P. Berczuk with B. Appleton, Addison-Wesley, 2003).
“Agile Configuration Management for Large Organizations.” This web article describes configuration
management practices that can be used in agile development processes, with a particular emphasis
on how these can scale to large projects and companies. (P. Schuh, 2007). http://www.ibm.com/
developerworks/rational/library/mar07/schuh/index.html
Configuration Management Best Practices This is a nicely written book that presents a broader
view of configuration management than I have discussed here, including hardware configuration
management. It’s geared to large systems projects and does not really cover agile development
issues. (Bob Aiello and Leslie Sachs, Addison-Wesley, 2011).
“A Behind the Scenes Look at Facebook Release Engineering.” This is an interesting article that covers the
problems of releasing new versions of large systems in the cloud, something that I haven’t discussed in
this chapter. The challenge here is to make sure that all of the servers are updated at the same time so
that users don’t see different versions of the system. (P. Ryan, arstechnica.com, 2012). http://arstechnica.
com/business/2012/04/exclusive-a-behind-the-scenes-look-at-facebook-release-engineering/
“Git SVn Comparison.” This wiki compares the Git and Subversion version control systems. (2013,
https://git.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/GitSvnComparsion).
Website
PowerPoint slides for this chapter:
www.pearsonglobaleditions.com/Sommerville
Links to supporting videos:
http://software-engineering-book.com/videos/software-management/
Exercises
25.1. Suggest five possible problems that could arise if a company does not develop effective
configuration management policies and processes.
25.2. In version management, what do codeline and baseline terminologies stand for? List the features
included in a version control system.