What is a central aspect of configuration management?

The central aspect of configuration management is keeping track of software versions. This process ensures that all the changes made to the software are documented, allowing teams to understand how a project evolves over time. Configuration management involves maintaining the integrity and consistency of the software's performance, functionality, and design as it undergoes changes. By tracking versions, teams can avoid inconsistencies, easily revert to previous states if necessary, and facilitate collaborative development, where multiple contributors might be working on different parts of the software at the same time.

Managing project budgets typically falls under project management rather than configuration management. Conducting market research is unrelated to the software development lifecycle and focuses more on understanding the target audience and market demands. Designing software features involves the creative and technical aspects of software development but does not encompass the broader scope of version control and change management that configuration management addresses.