Software configuration management for the 21st century

Midha, Anil K.

doi:10.1002/bltj.2039

Cited by 30 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 8 publications

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“…The extended CM system (ECMS; e.g., see, Midha 1997), and the source-code control system (SCCS; Rochkind 1975) are used to manage the source code. The ECMS groups atomic changes ("deltas") recorded by SCCS into logical changes referred to as maintenance requests (MR's).…”

Section: Records In CM Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Productivity Drivers by Modeling Work Units Using Partial Data

Graves¹,

Mockus²

2001

Technometrics

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We describe a new algorithm for estimating a model for an independent variable that is not directly observed but that represents one set of marginal totals of a sparse nonnegative two-way table whose other margin and zero pattern are known. The application that inspired the development of this algorithm arises in software engineering. We seek to identify those factors that affect the effort required for a developer to make a change to the software-for instance, to identify dif cult areas of the code, measure changes in the code dif culty through time, and evaluate the effectiveness of development tools. Unfortunately, measurements of effort for changes are not available in historical data. We model change effort using a developer's total monthly effort and information about which changes he/she investigated in each month. We illustrate a few speci c applications of our tool, demonstrate that the algorithm is an instance of the EM algorithm, and present a simulation study that speaks well of the reliability of the results our algorithm produces. In short, this algorithm allows analysts to quantify the impact of a promising software engineering tool or practice on coding effort.

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Section: Records In CM Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Identifying Productivity Drivers by Modeling Work Units Using Partial Data

Graves¹,

Mockus²

2001

Technometrics

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“…Software configuration management (SCM) 7 is essential to any scalable software development process. Meta-data, like any other software components that change over time, need configuration management.…”

Section: Historical Data Dictionaries and Configuration Managementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Managing data-based systems across releases using historical data dictionaries

2002

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IntroductionThe term meta-data typically denotes "data describing other data," or descriptive information associated with a particular artifact. Beyond pure description, meta-data can serve to specify the structure, behavior, and configuration of many software systems, completely or in part. Furthermore, such configuration meta-data can often be cast in tabular forms that obey the conventions of relational databases. Examples of systems and system components that fit this paradigm include:• Relational databases, whose schemas are archetypes of tabular configuration meta-data; • Domain-targeted application-generator systems (for example, domain model meta-data 1 ); • Finite-state machines and protocols; • Graph structures; • File and transmission formats and software transducers for these formats; • Reconfigurable assemblages of parameterized software components and their installers; and • Families of procedures derived from a common template (for example, procedures written in some database-stored procedure languages lacking modern abstraction facilities). Configuration meta-data are relevant to several lifecycle stages of a software system.• At design time, system behavior can be analyzed by automated meta-data audit tools (for example, protocol validators and dependency analyzers). Meta-data can be orders of magnitude easier and faster to analyze than a similar volume of procedural code.• At build time, meta-data can drive code generators.• At install time, meta-data can control the configuration of system components and guide the process of updating from a previous system version or can make platform-specific adjustments.• At run time, a system (for example, a multilingual graphical user interface [GUI]) can interpret meta-data to configure itself. For our purposes, the distinction between metadata and ordinary data is their use in specifying a system configuration, not the time at which they are being interpreted. From this point on, all references to meta-data shall mean configuration meta-data.Using meta-data to represent system configuration can enhance clarity and maintainability, provided a suitable environment exists to display, edit, and analyze such meta-data. Fortunately, end-user tools developed for relational databases (for example, query generators, graphical front ends, and report generators) can service meta-data development environments, since relational databases are natural hosts for tabular data.Numerous commercial software design tools have been based upon tabular meta-data, especially in the database field. These include both simple data dictionaries for capturing annotated, searchable database schemas and complex system frameworks for configuring entire data-based systems from parameterized software components. Contemporary examples of such systems include Computer Associates' PLATINUM Erwin, 2 Sybase's PowerDesigner,* 3 and the Oracle* Change Management Pack. 4 Unfortunately, no such tool addresses the task of maintaining and upgrading high-volume production data-based systems efficien...

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“…The existing configuration management tools support some or the combination of these activities with the help of functions including change control, version control, work space management, and build/release control [3]. However, most SCM tools underestimate the benefits of using the SCM metric capability in monitoring and measuring of other process areas and have their implementation depend on other CASE tools such as project management tool or spreadsheet software [4].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Development of Software Configuration Management Tool to Support Process Performance Monitoring and Analysis

Cline

Lee

2007

Computational Science – ICCS 2007

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Abstract. Most SCM tools underestimate the potential ability of monitoring and reporting the performance of various software process activities, and delegate implementation of such capabilities to other CASE tools. This paper discusses how SCM tool can be extended and implemented to provide valuable SCM information (e.g., metric data) in monitoring the performance of various process areas. With the extended SCM tool capability, stakeholders can measure, analyze, and report the performance of process activities even without using the expensive CASE tools.

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Software configuration management for the 21st century

Cited by 30 publications

References 8 publications

Identifying Productivity Drivers by Modeling Work Units Using Partial Data

Identifying Productivity Drivers by Modeling Work Units Using Partial Data

Managing data-based systems across releases using historical data dictionaries

Design and Development of Software Configuration Management Tool to Support Process Performance Monitoring and Analysis

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