When deploying new software configuration management (SCM) tools, implementers sometimes focus on perfecting fine-grained activities, while unwittingly carrying forward poor, large-scale practices from their previous jobs or previous tools. The result is a well-executed blunder. This paper promotes some high-level best practices that reflect the authors’ experiences in deploying SCM.

"A tool is only as good as you use it," the saying goes. As providers of software configuration management tools and consultants to software companies, we are often asked for sound advice on SCM best practices - that is, how to deploy SCM software to the maximum advantage. In answering these requests we have a bounty of direct and indirect SCM experience from which to draw. The direct experience comes from having been developers and codeline managers ourselves; the indirect experience comes from customer reports of successes and failures with our product (Perforce) and other SCM tools.

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