Patent US 5,956,732

A software management system is provided which enables the configuration of a software system to be checked on a specification level and the difference between two software systems to be identified easily. A system name and a system revision for each client to which the system has been released as well as a specification name and a specification revision for each system revision are registered in a configuration storage. And the name, all of the existing revisions and contents of each specification are registered in a specification storage. A data reference means outputs the contents of the configuration storage or the specification storage to a display device according to a data reference request from an input device such as a keyboard, and also outputs the difference in the name and revision of the specifications of two software systems input from the input device, and/or the contents of the specifications.