Contractually, CM must be used by contractors developing an application for organizations such as the Department of Defense. That is, certain standards (such as [2167a 87]) must be used. This use effectively determines the nature of the product and some of the process used to develop and maintain it.

The goals of using CM are to ensure the integrity of a product and to make its evolution more manageable. Although there is overhead involved in using CM, it is generally agreed that the consequences of not using CM can lead to many problems and inefficiencies. The overhead of using CM relates to time, resources, and the effects on other aspects of the software lifecycle.

For instance, CM affects many aspects in the decision making and risk assessment of a product. Decisions must be made about: how the code should evolve and at what price (in terms of time and work load the software engineers must pay); which CM system to use; and when to place the product under CM. All of these factors affect the software lifecycle. Hence, the less overhead in using a CM system, the better; in fact, the low overhead system is likely to be the system of choice. Not only should the upfront cost be low, but also the impact of the daily usage of the CM system should not be overwhelming to the users. Ideally a good CM system will be as supportive as possible and have an acceptable overhead.

(The chapter on Spectrum of Functionality in CM Systems presents the kinds of functionality prevalent in existing CM systems.)