What is Version Control? — UK Software Development Guide
Direct Answer
Version control (also called source control) is the practice of tracking and managing changes to source code over time. Version control systems (VCS) like Git record every change to code, who made it, when, and why. This enables teams to collaborate without overwriting each other's work, revert to previous versions if problems occur, and understand the history of any piece of code.
Version-control in the UK
Version control is a fundamental UK software development practice. UK regulatory implications: Cyber Essentials change management evidence is partially provided by Git commit history — changes to production systems should be traceable to specific code commits. NHS DSP Toolkit expects documented change management for software systems. UK GDPR accountability: git history provides an audit trail showing when personal data handling code was changed and by whom. ClickMasters uses GitHub for all client projects — with branch protection rules requiring PR review before any code reaches the main branch.
Related Glossary Terms
DEVOPS
DevOps explained for UK software developers and business owners. DevOps is a set of practices, principles, and culture that combines software development (Dev) and IT operations (Ops) t... UK context, examples, and related services.
Kubernetes
Kubernetes explained for UK software developers. Kubernetes (commonly abbreviated as K8s) is an open-source container orchestration platform that automates the deploymen... UK context and related services.
GRAPHQL
GraphQL explained for UK software developers. GraphQL is a query language for APIs and a server-side runtime for executing those queries, developed by Meta (Facebook)... UK context and related services.
Docker
Docker explained for UK software developers. Docker is a platform that packages software and its dependencies into standardised units called containers. A Docker con...
Terraform
Terraform explained for UK software developers. Terraform is an open-source Infrastructure as Code (IaC) tool by HashiCorp that allows you to define, provision, and man...
Aws-lambda
AWS Lambda explained for UK software developers. AWS Lambda is Amazon's serverless compute service. You upload code as a "function" and Lambda executes it in response to...
Get Expert Advice on Version-control
Speak with our UK software development experts about Version-control. Free consultation, transparent pricing, no obligation.