SCM operations differ from traditional software application development in that changes are often deployed directly into the live ‘production’ environment.  We may not always think of our work processes as a production environment since many changes are nothing more than ‘on the fly’ scripting changes, but if we truly believe that SCM is SDLC (and this author does), then these types of on the fly changes are being made in the maintenance phase of a hosted software process deployment.  In other words, SCM is Software as a Service.

It can be easy to fall into the trap of ignoring the rigor of pre-release software testing in the case where numerous small changes are being made daily, but if you wouldn’t skip regression testing with a release of application software or in-house, hosted software, then why would you do it with SCM operations – whether it’s a script, application, or process?  Are your external customers more important you’re your internal customers, or is it just that external customer complaints are more visible?

Just as application software is tested prior to shipping, any software process hosted for internal use should be tested.  After all,

SCM is SaaS