Software configuration management (SCM), also called change management, is a set of activities designed to manage change by identifying the work products that are likely to change, establishing relationships among them, defining mechanisms for managing different versions of these work products, controlling the changes imposed, and auditing and reporting on the changes made.
SCM is an umbrella activity that is applied throughout the software process. SCM is a set of tracking and control activities that are initiated when SE project begin and terminate only when the software is taken out of operation. SCM helps to improve software quality and on time delivery. SCM defines the project strategy for change management. When formal SCM is invoked, the change control process produces software change requests, reports and engineering change orders. SCM helps to track, analyze and control every work product.
Need of SCM
To Identify all items that define the software configuration
To Manage changes to one or more configuration items
To Facilitate construction of different versions of a software application
To Ensure that software quality is maintained as configuration evolves.