.\"
.\"	aegis - project change supervisor
.\"	Copyright (C) 1991, 1992, 1993 Peter Miller.
.\"	All rights reserved.
.\"
.\"	This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
.\"	it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
.\"	the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or
.\"	(at your option) any later version.
.\"
.\"	This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
.\"	but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
.\"	MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
.\"	GNU General Public License for more details.
.\"
.\"	You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
.\"	along with this program; if not, write to the Free Software
.\"	Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA.
.\"
.\" MANIFEST: User Guide, Introduction, What does aegis do?
.\"
.nh 2 "What does aegis do?"
.LP
Just what is software configuration management?
This question is sufficiently broad as to require a book in answer.
In essence, the aegis program is a project change supervisor.
It provides a
framework within which a team of developers may work on many changes to a
program independently,
and the aegis program coordinates integrating these
changes back into the master source of the program,
with as little disruption as possible.
Resolution of contention for source files,
a major headache for any project with more than one developer,
is one of the aegis program's major functions. 
.LP
It should be noted that the aegis program is a developer's tool,
in the same sense as make or RCS are developer's tools.
It is not a manager's tool - it does not provide progress tracking
or help with work allocation.