Configuration Management - lecture 1:

Introduction and motivation

Literature

• Wayne Babich: Software Configuration Management - Coordination for Team Productivity, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, 1986.
  Chapter 1: Configuration Management and Chapter 2: Program Families.

  Read these chapters carefully - they contain many words of wisdom. Make sure that you fully understand:

  • the Shared Data problem - and its causes
  • the Double Maintenance problem - and its causes
  • the Simultaneous Update problem - and its causes
  • the difference between revisions and variants
  
  Read the chapters after the lecture, but before the exercises.

Wayne Babich' book has been cited at least 365 times in "Google-known" literature.
See how people rate Babich' book on Amazon.com

Lecture slides in pdf.

Lecture summary:

• Motivation
  • definition(s) of SCM
  • what are the problems and goals of SCM
  • why do we need SCM?
  • examples from outside the software world
• Pedagogical setup
  • roll call and administratrivia
  • pedagogical foundation for the course
  • goals of the course
• Overview
  • what is SCM?
  • communication and co-ordination
  • versioning concepts and principles
  • traditional CM

Exercises week 1.

Quote of the day

... what the hell, let's call him Ramses, too ... (Ramses the 1st, inventor of versioning, at the birth of his son, 1784 BC).