Programmer Musings

Review of Software Configuration Management Patterns

Software Configuration Management Patterns
Stephen P. Berczuk and Brad Appleton
Addison-Wesley, 2003

The first three chapters define the problem space. We get a solid description of Software Configuration Management (SCM) and an introduction to patterns and pattern languages. This section of the book sets up the context that you will need to understand the rest.

Much like the GOF book, this book gives names to different practices that you may now be using. It explains the each of these practices as patterns. More importantly, this book relates these patterns to one another as a pattern language that gives more of a big picture understanding of SCM. In other words, the book not only presents patterns such as Mainline, Integration Build, and Release Line; it also explains how these and other patterns relate to each other to make a strong SCM policy.

I have been using various version control systems for nearly two decades. In that time, I have stumbled my way toward understanding many of these patterns. If you have worked in software for a long time, you might feel that you already know everything you need. One of the things I found most useful in this book, (besides the standardized naming) was justification for some of the practices I had come to accept. The way the book related different practices to make the combination stronger was also quite revealing.

If you have not been doing SCM for long or have just begun using some version control tool, this book can give you insight into what you should be doing. Unfortunately, I suspect that some experience is needed to properly appreciate the patterns in the book. If you already know everything you need to about SCM, the book still provides standardized names and relationships that can help when explaining your practices to others.

Overall, I recommend this book for anyone working in software development. While it is not the most exciting topic to read, it is practical and useful to working developers and their support teams.