In order for the same software to run on different machines there is a need to initialize the protocol with parameters specific to that machine and to the local network before starting proper operation. Those parameters can be configured manually and locally for each and every computer. A better approach will be to use common pool of addresses by a set of computers.
Manual configuration give no easy way of doing so.
The next section gives an overview of some other mechanism and the evolvement from them into the current DHCP .