Knowledge based configuration management

Advanced configuration management systems require explicit representations of various kinds of knowledge. Besides the classical requirements of keeping track of which component versions have been used to build a system, the knowledge that has led to the selection of these versions and the knowledge of compatibility rules between versions are essential to perform many configuration management functions,. A description is given of the languages provided to express version selections in terms of queries and compatibility rules in the system, emphasizing the knowledge representation issues involved here. It is illustrated how queries can be used to represent various aspects of the development methods and to customize the system. An outline is given of the consistency verification technique provided to detect automatically inconsistencies in the rule base or among the assumptions of different developers.<>