CM Terms and Definititions
Here are some common Configuration Management terms and definitions.
Audit: Checking that a configuration item released for usage meets demands—that it fulfills specifications and, when released, is complete according to configuration management information. In this book, this is regarded as a quality assurance activity.
Baseline: This expression is not used in this book, except in direct quotes from standards or maturity models.
Binaries: Files whose contents are translated (compiled) into binary presentations, with variables of only yes or no (0 and 1).
Check-in: Placement of a configuration item in storage in the controlled library.
Check-out: Release of a configuration item from storage in the controlled library to production.
Configuration Control Board (CCB) or Configuration Change Board: A group of people responsble for assessing, and approving or rejecting, proposed changes to configuration items and responsible for the performance of approved changes.
Configuration item: Any intermediate work product, product component, or product placed under configuration management.
Configuration management system: All the procedure descriptions, templates, and tools that collectively support configuration management performed in a given context.
Dynamic library: A repository used during production. It is not regarded as belonging to the configuration management process area.
Library: A repository for a collection of items.
Life-cycle-dependent process: A process in operation for a limited period during the product’s lifetime, such as design or unit test. Such a process may be repeated throughout the product’s lifetime in an iterative development model.
Life-cycle-independent process: A process that must be in effect throughout a product’s lifetime, such as project management or configuration management.
Master library: A controlled repository for storing configuration items. Also called a configuration management library.
Metadata: Information about configuration items. For instance, a document placed under configuration management is a configuration item, while the name and number of the document are metadata for the item.
Process description: A description of the techniques, methods, conventions, and procedures employed in connection with a certain activity.
Product: Something produced. It may be for internal use, such as a design sketch, or for delivery, such as an entire software system.
Release or Baseline: A collection of configuration items that together form one configuration item. The collection is formed to be deliverable and useful as an entity.
Static library: A repository for items in use. It is not regarded as belonging to the configuration management process area.
Support process: Processes used in all other processes at various points in a software project’s life cycle. Support processes in themselves make no sense; they make sense only with other processes. For instance, naming is a support process; naming only makes sense if another process has created a product to name.