Maintaining software versions

Question

I am preparing an Excel sheet in which I have to maintain the version number of different pieces of software developed at our company.

Can anyone tell me what kind of information to save along with the version number in that sheet for different types of software?

I know only one attribute that is version number, and if anything else so please let me know.

Regards

Answer 1

Items to consider recording:

• Software version number
• Release date
• Build date perhaps
• Build platform - O/S version, compiler, libraries
• Supported platforms - where the software is considered likely to work
• Version control system (VCS) tags or labels
• Manual version information - if not automatically in the software distribution

The supported platforms are of relevance if you build on Windows XP but expect it to work on Vista and Windows 7, for example; or perhaps you build on Linux kernel 2.6.9 and expect it to work with more recent versions; or perhaps you build on Solaris 9 and expect it to work on Solaris 10 too.

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A few more things that might be useful (depending a lot on the context):

• Locations of (design and implementation) documentation for features added to the release
• Information about the bugs fixed in the release
• Possibly names of people involved in the development - especially names that would not show up in the VCS
• Information about undocumented features in the product
• Information about features planned for the product that didn't make it in
• Information about security certifications obtained for the software (Common Criteria, FIPS 140-2, etc)
• URLs for this version of the product