The asgard system: Activity-based configuration management

Abstract

The novel aspect of the Asgard configuration management system is the integration of (1) the use of activities--named objects created by developers to represent development tasks--to define system configurations, (2) the detection of inconsistencies when activities are assembled into new configurations, and (3) dynamic controlled sharing of work products.In Asgard, a developer specifies the source versions that he wants to see by means of a baseline and a list of activities. A baseline is a fixed set of immutable source versions. An activity is a cluster of versions produced in the course of a specific development task. Activity-based configuration management provides a simple and intuitive way for developers to specify the context for their work, to track project status, and to produce accurate information for system maintainers.