Software development has traditionally suffered from producing end products with a definite lack of inherent quality. The symptoms of this quality lack are listed here:

• Software development projects are often delivered late and over budget.
• Often the delivered product does not meet customer requirements and is never used.
• Software products simply do not work right.

As we look into the symptoms of our software development malaise, five principal issues related to software development arise.

Lack of Visibility
Software is conceptual in nature. Unlike a bridge, a building, or another physical structure, it is not easy to look at software and assess how close it is to completion. Without strong project management, “software is 90% complete 90% of the time.” Through the adoption of SCM policy and the definition of the configuration management model of the software under development, all CIs, components, and subcomponents are immediately visible for versions, releases, and product families.