Configuration management

From Conservapedia

Configuration Management, or CM, is the discipline of computing which focuses on controlling and keeping track of information and versions.

There are three broad disciplines of configuration management:

• Software Configuration Management involves control of the source code files used to generate software. This allows developers to retract changes that proved to be non-useful. Also, it allows the development of different versions of software. For instance, a company might develop a new game for both the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Many files might be in common between the two, but others might be different. Software configuration management allows the developers to easily contribute to both.
• Hardware Configuration Management involves tracking of physical computing resources and detailed descriptions of them.
• Document Management involves tracking of versions of documents.

In all but the smallest projects, software tools are used for all three disciplines. There vary from something as simple as a spreadsheet listing of hardware projects, to high end, very expensive, commercial tools.