Version control versus change control

The correct answer: D. Version control

✅ Why this answer

Version control tracks and manages changes to source code (with systems such as Git): who changed what and when, branches, merging and conflict detection, and returning to any earlier version.

❌ Why the other options are wrong

• Change control (A): the biggest trap, because the two names are near twins; change control is a formal process for introducing changes into systems in a controlled, coordinated way, not a tool for tracking lines of code.
• Integration testing (B): combining units and testing them as a group to check their interactions.
• A security audit (C): a systematic evaluation of controls and vulnerabilities (a related question in the full bank).

💡 Key concept

The basic distinction (related questions in the full bank): version control is a technical tool for managing code and documents, used by developers. Change control is a governance process for environments, which approves a change entering the live environment. The tool works under the umbrella of the process: code is managed with the first, and enters the live environment through the second.

In the exam: “who changed which line and when”, “a merge conflict” and “going back to an earlier version” point to version control. “The change was reviewed and approved before going live” points to change control.

🔗 Related facts and questions

• The vocabulary of version control: the repository is where the code and documents and their change history are kept. A commit records a change. A branch is a separate line of work. A merge joins two branches. A conflict is two edits to the same place.
  Practice question: yesterday’s edit turns out to have caused an error, and the code must go back to how it was before it. Which of the two practices makes that possible? → Version control, by returning to an earlier version.
• The steps of change control: a documented change request, then an assessment of its impact and risks, then approval, then scheduling and testing, then carrying it out with a back-out plan, then a review afterward.
  Practice question: an update to the telehealth system was reviewed and approved before it entered the live environment. Which of the two practices is this? → Change control.
• Who approves a change: it is reviewed by a committee with representatives of the technical side and of those affected by the change, called in the ITIL framework the change advisory board (CAB). It assesses the change and recommends approving or rejecting it, and the approval is given by the authority named in the process on that recommendation.
  Practice question: an engineer wants to install an update in the live environment this evening without showing it to anyone, because it is “minor”. What is being skipped? → The change control process; every change in the live environment goes through it, however minor it seems.
• Configuration management: a third, close name. It records the components of the environment (servers, applications and interfaces) and the relationships between them, so that it is known what any change affects.
• Improving the change control process (also called change management) after a performance problem: a related question in the full bank.