Subject: Configuration Management the build system's job? - by: mbools

I have always maintained, and continue to maintain, that "build" is not a part of CM nor vice versa. They are two distinct practices. In my view, build is a step in the creation of a product and as such is part of the line function (in the old management terminology of line and staff).

Build is in essence the action taken to translate man-readable material (source) into machine-readable material (executable).

Determining the components to include, which versions of the components, which set of build instructions, and which build engine is the responsibility of someone such as the team lead or PM. Putting the package together for the build and delivering it to the Build Engineer (BE) is the role of the CM specialist. Those duties are not part of actually performing the build.

Now often the person who is assigned to the role of CM Specialist is also assigned to the role of BE. Why? Probably because it is cheaper. You don't have to hire and pay for the benefits of a separate BE.

With all that said, it may be that the build system contributes to CM activities if the system has features that normally are done by other means. For example, in the old days, versioning/revisioning was done by hand. Someone finally automated that so that a CM tool would do it as updated files were checked in. Now if you have a build system that contributes to that, then you could claim that the system contributes to CM activities. But that is a long stretch from saying that either one is a part or subset of the other.

View the original article here