Thursday 20 November 2008

Easy SCM

Software Configuration Management (SCM) is an important part of software development - without robust SCM, no software development project can achieve a high quality result.
To this end, there are a few simple characteristics that indicate good SCM - Personally, I haven't encountered a successful project whose SCM plan does not have these characteristics:
  1. Be a snail - leave a trail! Changes are never versioned without a documented reason.
  2. Documented reasons are always either defect fixes, or software enhancements. Both defects and enhancements can be identified by an ID without the need to log detailed explanations for each change - all that is required is for the change to cross reference the defect or enhancement (from a bug database or project plan, for example).
  3. Each change is made for a logical reason, and one reason only. Changes aren't combined or split over several different versions.
  4. It is easy to 'do some archaeology' by quickly running older configurations. e.g. There exists a store of automated nightly builds with corresponding configuration IDs available.
  5. The way of working is cultural, not 'enforced' - although it should be difficult to 'absent-mindedly' not follow the process. i.e. You can't make a change without a defect or enhancement ID to log against it.
  6. The SCM system is transparent and visible, so others with an interest can view progress (although not necessarily take part in the activities - that can be damaging to progress!).
  7. Each change represents no more than two man weeks work.
So, how does your project rate against these?