Software Change Control Maintains Efficiency Of The Programs
Developing and maintaining software requires that there be some form of software change control implemented. Software change control is basically having accountability over the software changes and tracking the changes efficiently. An effective software change control will allow for several different functions in the process.
One of the processes for software change is for the different people on the team to request changes on the software after it has been tested. These change requests need to be logged and kept in a database for the developers to sort through which ones are duplicate; which ones would be effective and which ones that they will in fact actually make to the software.
There are typically change requests made for reporting various problems encountered during the beta testing of the software. Additionally, technical documentation, user agreements and instructional guides will often have change requests. Having an effective software change control system in place will make it easier to coordinate and make the necessary modifications as needed.
To implement a good software change control, one person or one specific team need to track the change requests. This person or group will then make the determining decision if a particular change request will be implemented for the software or not. The next person in the chain of command for software change control is the actual modifier. The modifier will make the actual changes that were approved by the group or person that was in charge of the change requests. Once the modifications are made, the modifier can either than document the changes or submit the change information to another person responsible for nothing but updating changes. Often the modifier will send the change documentation back to the person or group in charge of making change requests. After the changes have been made and documented a software tester will then test the modifications. Documentation of how successful the modifications are will then be made. If the modifications are complete and working then the change request can be closed out. If there were additional problems, then a modified change request can be submitted to the person or group in charge of change requests. The modifier will then need to implement until the change made is successful. As you can see, the changes to software can become very complex. If these changes are being made without any sort of software change control system in place the entire process can become extremely complex and completely inefficient. A great deal of time will be lost and the software can potentially be ruined. Each company has variations of the software change control system that they use for their software development but the basics are the same as listed in this article. Another effective way to track and utilize software change control is to have a configuration management system implemented for the various soft wares that are being modified or developed. This will allows more efficiency and control over the system with an IT person handling all of the control.
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