Deployment Managing software configurations

Deployment involves distributing and installing the software and any other components of the system such as databases, special hardware etc. It also involves managing the transition from any previous system.Deploying a new release of a large system with many users can pose great difficulties – the amount of work is often under-estimated. To keep this book short, we have decided not to discuss deployment.

Managing software configurations

Configuration management involves identifying all the components that compose a software system, including files containing requirements, designs and source code. It also involves keeping track of these as they change, and ensuring that changes are performed in an organized way. All software engineers must participate in the configuration management of the parts of the system for which they are responsible.

Managing the process

Managing software projects is considered an integral part of software engineering. All software engineers assist their managers to some extent, and most will, at some point in their careers, become managers themselves.

Management  In addition to leading the other activities described above, the manager has to undertake the following tasks:

 Estimating the cost of the system. This involves studying the requirements and determining how much effort they will take to design and implement.

   Planning. This is the process of allocating work to particular developers, and setting a schedule with deadlines.

Both cost estimates and plans need to be examined and revised on a regular basis, since initial estimates will only be rough.