Software Engineering

FIGURE 1.4
Series of project and technical reviews and audits.

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CHAPTER 1 
Introduction to Software Engineering
defined, designed, implemented, and qualified prior to the software product deploy-
ment readiness review to demonstrate that the software product has been completed 
and is ready to be deployed into operations or distributed to customers or consum-
ers. The decision to deploy the software product must account for the state of each 
of the post-development process development efforts.
1.10 
Configuration management and change control
Configuration management maintains the coherent alignment of functional, 
structural, and performance characteristics throughout the product’s life cycle. 
Configuration management practices involve configuration identification, change 
control, configuration status accounting, and configuration audits. These practices 
are intended to ensure that the software product conforms to its specifications, 
design, and operational and support documentation. Configuration audits ensure 
that the final product configuration has been properly tested, all physical character-
istics are consistent with specifications, diagrams, drawings, users’ manuals, etc., 
as well as ensuring that all authorized changes have been incorporated into the con-
figuration data (artifacts).
Managing change is one of the most critical aspects of any development 
effort. No development team can predict the numerous issues that will be encoun-
tered throughout a software development effort. The term 
develop
 has several 
meanings, including to change and become larger, stronger, or more impressive; 
and to become apparent and thus resolve a question or clarify a situation. This 
implies that the problem space is not understood well enough at the inception of 
a project to accurately define a plan or schedule that will not vary from its original 
account. When considering change control, the following underlying facts must be 
acknowledged:
●
  Projects are established to develop a software product and are driven by cost and 
schedule objectives and resource constraints.
●
  Project planning establishes a roadmap that the project will initially proceed 
to execute. As the development effort analyzes the problem space and solution 
alternatives, project plans and schedule definitions must be revised to correctly 
reflect the new understanding of the project outlook.
●
  Project management involves numerous control mechanisms for achieving 
established project objectives including budgets, resource allocations, and risk 
tracking.
●
  The software architecture provides the technical framework for establishing the 
product structural configuration. This product configuration will evolve as more 
detail is derived as a result of analysis, investigation, modeling, and prototyping.
●
  As the product configuration is meticulously detailed the product and WBSs 
must be extended to provide the basis for revising technical plans, schedules, 
and key milestone accomplishment criteria.

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