Software configuration management in agile methods

The development of good quality software is a critical element of successful competition for today’s software market shares. However, software products are becoming larger and more complex; therefore, the development of quality software is neither easy nor rapid. Agile software development methods focus on generating early releases of working products. They aim to deliver business value immediately from the beginning of the project. Regardless of the development method in use, it is important that software development be under control. Software configuration management (SCM) is known as a method of bringing control to the software development process, and thus, proper application of SCM is a key component in the development of quality software. However, currently very few studies on software configuration management in agile methods exist; hence this study. The aim of this publication is to systematically review the existing literature on agile software development methodologies from an SCM point of view. First, analytical SCM lenses based on existing SCM literature are constructed. Second, existing agile methods are analyzed using the lenses constructed. The results show that only two of the existing agile methods take SCM explicitly into account, but most of the methods highly value SCM tool support and its ability to revert to earlier versions of development artefacts. Nonetheless, the basis for successful SCM implementation, SCM planning, has been completely forgotten.