The minimum required contents of a Software Configuration Management (SCM) Planare established via this standard. This standard applies to the entire life cycle of critical software (e.g., where failure would impact safety or cause large financial or social losses). It also applies to noncritical software and to software already developed. The application of this standard is not restricted to any form, class, or type of software.
This standard establishes the minimum requirements for processes for Configuration Management (CM) in systems and software engineering. The application of this standard applies to any form, class, or type of software or system. This revision of the standard expands the previous version to explain CM, including identifying and acquiring configuration items, controlling changes, reporting the status of configuration items, as well as software builds and release engineering. Its predecessor defined only the contents of a software configuration management plan. This standard addresses what CM activities are to be done, when they are to happen in the life cycle, and what planning and resources are required. It also describes the content areas for a CM Plan. The standard supports ISO/IEC/IEEE 12207:2008 and ISO/IEC/IEEE 15288:2008 and adheres to the terminology in ISO/IEC/IEEE Std 24765 and the information item requirements of IEEE Std 15939™.
In software engineering, software configuration management (SCM or S/W CM)[1] is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software, part of the larger cross-disciplinary field of configuration management.[2] SCM practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines. If something goes wrong, SCM can determine what was changed and who changed it. If a configuration is working well, SCM can determine how to replicate it across many hosts.
The acronym "SCM" is also expanded as source configuration management process and software change and configuration management.[3] However, "configuration" is generally understood to cover changes typically made by a system administrator.