The genericity of SCM is built upon the simplicity of its model, and the
universality with which this one applies to virtually anything.
The model considers whatever entity of concern as a Software Configuration,
i.e. a graph of Configuration Items related with (directed) dependencies.
Any Configuration Item may itself be considered as a Software Configuration
(possibly trivial when degenerated to the level of an opaque element version).
The genericity of dependencies is obtained through producing them by auditing
an event, and recording enough information to make this one uniquely
identifiable. Note that the record typically involves a tool interpreting in a
specific way properties of the configuration items. Nevertheless, the
dependency is fully generic, so that its management doesn't require any
knowledge of the tool.
Generic manageability is obtained for the parts of the dependency graph which
are acyclic, i.e. allow for a decomposition into layers (levelization), and
thus an serialization of concerns. --
MarcGirod
From
SoftwareConfigurationManagement
CategoryConfigurationManagement