Configuration-Management Structure for a Product with Five Released Versions

Software Configuration Management (SCM) keeps every released version identifiable, reproducible and controlled while several versions are maintained at the same time.

1. Configuration items (CIs)

Category	Items
Requirements/design	SRS, design documents, architecture diagrams
Source	Source code, libraries, configuration files
Build/deploy	Build scripts, installers, environment settings
Test	Test plans, test cases, test data, results
Data	Database schema and migration scripts
User	User manual, release notes

2. Version identification

Use semantic versioning: MAJOR.MINOR.PATCH (e.g. 3.2.1)

• MAJOR: incompatible or large changes
• MINOR: new backward-compatible features
• PATCH: bug fixes only

Baselines are frozen, approved sets of CIs (e.g. v1.0, v2.0). Each CI and each build is tagged with its version.

main (latest development)
 |--- release/1.x  --> 1.0, 1.0.1, 1.1 ... (maintenance branch)
 |--- release/2.x  --> 2.0, 2.0.1 ...
 |--- release/3.x  --> 3.0, 3.1 ...
 |--- release/4.x  --> 4.0, 4.2 ...
 |--- release/5.x  --> 5.0, 5.1 ...   (current)

Each released version has its own maintenance branch; a fix is applied to the affected branches and merged back to main.

3. Change control process

1. Change request raised (bug, enhancement, environment change)
2. Impact analysis: which CIs and versions are affected
3. Change Control Board (CCB) reviews and approves or rejects
4. Implementation on a branch
5. Verification: review and regression testing
6. Merge and baseline update, change log recorded
7. Status reporting and audit

4. Release management

Activity	Purpose
Release planning	Decide which fixes/features go into which version
Build and package	Reproducible build from tagged CIs
Release notes	List changes, known issues, upgrade steps
Deployment and rollback plan	Safe installation with a way back
Support policy	Define how long each version is maintained
Audit	Check that the released build matches the approved baseline

Tools

Git/SVN for version control, Jenkins/CI for builds, Jira for change requests.

Benefit

Any of the five versions can be rebuilt exactly, bugs can be traced to the version they affect, and changes are controlled and recorded.