1. Implementing and Integrating
Product Data Management and
Software Configuration Management
(Artech House Computing Library) by
Annita Persson Dahlqvist
Excellent Guide To Scm-Pdm Integration
Because today’s products rely on tightly integrated hardware and
software components, system and software engineers, and project an d
product managers need to have an understanding of both product data
management (PDM) and software configuration management (SCM). This
groundbreaking book offers you that essential knowledge, pointing out the
similarities and differences of these two processes, and showing you how
they can be combined to ensure effective and efficient product and system
development, production and maintenance. The book provides
comprehensive coverage of the immense range of PDM/SCM tools in the
marketplace. You learn how to leverage the synergy created by combining
PDM and SCM. Organizations using this integrated approach can benefit
for years to come by being able to quickly and efficiently develop new
products and efficiently maintain and update existing products. A thor ough
treatment of PDM and SCM principles ensures mastery of these
development processes before embarking on an integration program. In-
depth case studies provide practical knowledge for successful PDM and
SCM use and integration.
Product Data Management (PDM) is a class of enterprise software that
manages product data and relationships-facilitating innovation and
increasing engineering productivity. It allows you to manage, control, and
access data surrounding new product design, engineering, and
manufacturing processes. By providing controlled and secure global data
access, PDM empowers the organization to deliver higher-quality products
to market faster and more efficiently. This process impacts the entire life
cycle of a product, as employees at each phase in the product
development process can access the right information at the right time.
Software Configuration management (SCM) is the discipline of identifying
the configuration of a system at discrete points in time for purpose s of
systematically controlling changes to this configuration and maintaining the
integrity and traceability of this configuration throughout the system life
cycle. SCM is a collection of techniques which coordinate and control the
construction of a software system. Todays software systems consist of a

2. myriad of component parts each of which evolves as it is developed and
maintained. SCM ensures that this evolution is efficient and controlled, so
that the individual components fit together to form a coheren t whole.
So we can say that while PDM ensures that the product development goes
on smoothly, SCM make sure that the software development is done
efficiently. Today most products-both hardware and software-are becoming
more and more complex. Another fact is that in todays environment neither
software nor hardware can exist in isolation. Software is the integral part
and the driving force in almost all machines and systems from mission
critical applications like controlling the operations of satellites and
Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), air traffic control (ATC) systems,
managing the functioning of banks and hospitals, handling the airline and
railway reservation systems and so on to performing mundane tasks like
operating a door locking system.
In the past the SCM and PDM disciplines have existed and evolved with
little interaction. The SCM and PDM disciplines can help an organization to
achieve greater efficiencies in its product development, marketing and
customer support efforts. But the days of SCM and PDM working in
isolation are gone. To survive, thrive and successfully compete in todays
highly competitive business environment, the organizations must conceive,
build, test and market high-quality products in the most efficient and
effective manner. The customer support, bug fixes, product
enhancements, product evolution, etc. must be done quickly (at internet
speed) and with minimum wasted effort. In order to achieve these goals,
the SCM and PDM disciplines must be integrated.
Only when the hardware and software development teams fully
understands what is happening in the `other world, only when the
hardware-software boundaries disappear and only when the seamless
information integration occurs between the hardware and software
development environments, the organizations will be able to realize their
full potential and become market leaders. If this is to happen, then the
organizations should integrate their SCM and PDM efforts.
The book Implementing and Integrating Product Data Management and
Software Configuration Management does an excellent job in teaching and
guiding the organizations/practitioners to integrate their SCM and PDM
disciplines successfully. The easy-to-read and engaging writing style
combined with the excellent organization of the book has gone a long way
in making the topics of SCM and PDM accessible and interesting to the
readers.
The book contains 5 sections-Basic Principles of PDM and SCM,
Similarities and Differences between PDM and SCM, Integration and
Deployment, Case Studies and Tools and Standards Survey. The book
develops the basics of both SCM and PDM from grounds up so that the
reader who is not familiar with either discipline will not have to go
elsewhere for understanding the concepts of SCM or PDM. For experts i n
the field, the introduction to the basics acts as a refresher.
Once the basics and concepts are established the authors get down to the
business of detailing the methods and strategies of integrating PDM and

3. SCM. The authors provide detailed descriptions of PDM and SCM
integration processes so that the users can get a clear picture of the
benefits of SCM-PDM integration. This is followed up with 6 excellent case
studies from multinational organizations like Sun, Ericsson, ABB, etc.
These case studies are worth their weight in gold as they illustrate the
challenges and opportunities of the SCM-PDM integration efforts.
The last section consists of the SCM and PDM resources, brief
descriptions of SCM and PDM tools and so on. This section also gives a
short but excellent overview of Document Management System and its
relation to SCM and PDM and a list of document management tools.
Another very useful chapter in this section is the one that describes the
major SCM, PDM and document management standards.
This book is a MUST read for engineers, developers and managers who
develop todays sophisticated systems. This book is ideal for people who
are trying to or who are entrusted with the task of integrating the SCM-
PDM efforts of their organizations. This book will also be very useful for the
SCM/PDM professionals who want to learn about the other discipline and
how it relates to their own profession.
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