Managing versions and configurations in a software handover process

Tracking and controlling versions and configurations of software systems is a challenging task. It becomes especially challenging during handover, a process during which a software system is transferred from a development to a maintenance team. Although there exist many process models dealing with version and configuration today, little has been done to study them from the perspective of a software system handover and its needs. In this paper, we have evaluated version and configuration activities from the handover perspective in 29 organizations. Our goal was to explore their relevancy within software handover. Our results shows that the version and configuration activities studied are highly relevant and critical in the software handover context.