Database CM, like software CM, means different things to different people. From our perspective, though, it is about providing the same benefits to a development shop that SCM does, even when some or all of the development involves a database. Database CM is just SCM on a database, if you will. Unfortunately, “SCM on a database” is damn hard. Hard enough, in fact, that there are a bunch of tools, free and commercial, trying to get a handle on it.

Most people haven't “got it” yet, though. Database CM is what inspired the creation of Longacre Deployment Management (an DBCM/SCM technique).

There are various ways to do database change management. Here's one take: Database CM three ways