A framework for subsystem-based configuration management

Abstract

Existing software configuration management (CM) tools are limited in the support they provide for configuration and change management of hierarchically structured software systems. This paper describes a framework for CM of subsystems-logically coherent collections of software development artefacts, including code, documentation and test sets. The goal is to provide visibility of changes at intermediate levels between whole-system and source-code levels, thereby reducing the complexity of the build V&V and change management processes. The framework supports characterisation of subsystems and changes to subsystems, and provides hooks into change tracking processes.