Configuration Management

Definition

Configuration Management

the management activity consisting of the cohesive collection of all tasks that are primarily performed to manage an endeavor’s baselines of configuration items

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, configuration management is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Abstract
• Superclass: Management Activity
• Subclasses:
  • Enterprise Configuration Management
  • Program Configuration Management
  • Project Configuration Management

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of Configuration Management are to:

• Ensure that stakeholders know the major components of the endeavor.
• Minimize project disruption due to uncontrolled changes to major components of the endeavor.
• Provide an audit trail on why, when, and by whom baselined work products are changed.
• Identify configuration items and baselines to enable the retrieval of specific versions of work products and baselines.
• Control changes to configuration items and baselines to minimize endeavor disruption.
• Report the status of changes to configuration items and baselines to all relevant stakeholders.
• Audit baselines to ensure that they consist of the correct versions of the correct configuration items.

Preconditions

Configuration Management typically may begin when the following conditions hold:

• The endeavor is started.
• The configuration management team, change control board, and endeavor team (e.g., enterprise team, program team, or project team) are:
  • Initially staffed.
  • Adequately trained in configuration management.

Completion Criteria

Configuration Management is typically complete when the following conditions hold:

• The endeavor is completed.
• The associated configuration items have been retired.

Tasks

Configuration Management typically involves the following teams performing the following tasks in an iterative, incremental, parallel, and time-boxed manner:

• Configuration Management Team, which performs:
  • Configuration Management Planning
  • Configuration Identification
  • Version Control
  • Configuration Control
  • Configuration Status Reporting
  • Configuration Auditing
• Change Control Board, which performs:
  • Configuration Control
• Endeavor team which performs:
  • Version Control

Environments

Configuration Management is typically performed using the following environment(s) and associated tools:

• Reuse Environment:
  • Configuration Management Tool
  • Problem Reporting Tool
• Development Environments:
  • Configuration Management Tool
  • Problem Reporting Tool
• Test Environment:
  • Configuration Management Tool
  • Problem Reporting Tool
• Production Environments:
  • Configuration Management Tool
  • Problem Reporting Tool

Work Products

Configuration Management typically results in the production of all or part of the following work products in the configuration management work product set:

• Configuration Management Plan
• Change Request Form
• Configuration Identification Report
• Configuration Control Board Meeting Minutes
• Configuration Status Report
• Configuration Audit Report

Phases

Configuration Management tasks are typically performed during the following phases:

Guidelines

• This activity is documented using the typical configuration for large endeavors. It is intended to be configured (i.e., instantiated, extended, and tailored) to meet the needs of specific endeavors.
• The preconditions of this activity should be the union of the preconditions of its constituent tasks.
• The completion criteria for this activity should be the union of the postconditions of its constituent tasks.