Article Review: Software Change Management

ARTICLE REVIEW: SOFTWARE CHANGE MANAGEMENT
By (Student Name)
Article Reviewed: Testing and Change Management
Article Author: Maciaszek
(Tutor’s Name)
(University’s Name)
(City)
(Date)
Student’s Name Student’s ID 1

Introduction
The article by Jacky is summarized into three major chapters. The first chapter
summarizes the state of art in SCM, the second chapter shows the current research work and
issues under way in software engineering. The last part, has highlighted the challenges SCM has
to take up and SCM future. The article is gives an overview of the book “Software configuration
management implementation roadmap” by Mario E. Moreira
Body
Synopsis of the article
According to Jacky Software Configuration Management (SCM) is the control of
complex systems. The disciple emerged after software crisis in the early 80s and 70s. This was
an attempt to address software engineering issues. According to the author SCM focused largely
in programming. According to the author SCM system provides services in the following areas;
first is managing a repository components; this includes product modelling, complex project
management, and version management. The second area is helping engineers in their usual
activities; this according to the author involves proving engineers with the right objects. The last
area indicated by the author is process control and support. The author has also highlighted all
the concepts of SM which are versioning, product model, and composition. On the last part the
author has indicated that SCM tools are rapidly growing thus the increasing in number of SCM
tools challenges. Some of the challenges indicated by the author are in functional areas example
are concurrent engineering with very high level models and scalable solutions. Configuration
control with consistency criteria and automatic selection.
Discussion and analysis of the article
The major points of the article
The article summarizes four major points. The author, Jacky provides a customizable
step-by-step process of implementing SCM. Second, the author discusses typical SCM activities
at the project control which includes change control, problem management, and source control.
Third the author has stressed on the fact that anyone can implement SCM in their company at
every level. Lastly, compared to other technologies, the author has indicated that SCM is the best
Software engineering technologies. According to the author the market is booming with over one
billion sales as at 1998.
Student’s Name Student’s ID 2

Discussion
From the article by Jacky Estublier it is evident that SCM spans the software
development lifecycle. From the article, one can state that SCM has two major dimensions which
are proactive quality assurance and testing as reactive. Also one can state that SCM testing is the
best software engineering technology. In addition to the article by Jacky Estublier a change
request is usually an enhancement and a defect.
Strength and weaknesses
The intended audience of this article are the software testers, software developers, and
system analyst. The author is aimed at describing testing and change management which is part
of requirements analysis and system design. In addition, the author has defined the important
terms which are testing, change management and software quality.
Just like any other article in engineering, Jacky’s article is referenced using the standard
IEEE format. Also the article arranged in a chorological order like other academic articles from
abstract, introduction, current research work, and conclusion.
The article by Jacky Estublier is an excellent one in software development. First, the
article is rich in demonstration; the author demonstrated some of his points by the use of a table.
Table is one tool used by researched to explain a concept; this enables a reader to understand
more. Second, the article covers advanced features in the software development process such as
software engineering technologies such as SCM and PDM. Also, as one can view from the
article, it is organized logically and very easy to follow. In addition, the author suits his intended
audience as he has highlighted some aspects of software testing. The author has objectively
argued his points with clear illustrations.
One of the weaknesses of the article is that the author has not clearly stated how a tester
can conduct change management. From other software engineering articles such as that by S.M
Ghost, he has stated clearly on how a tester can conduct change during software development.
SCM does not cover everything in software engineering. Usually, software change management
needs to be supported by solid decision-making processes Also there are some special techniques
used in change management that the author needs to have highlighted. These are impact analysis
techniques where one analyses the impacts of modification in a system. Other techniques which
the author need to have highlighted are reverse engineering technique which is aimed at deriving
higher-level description from a lower level presentations. Also, there is a regression technique.
Student’s Name Student’s ID 3