Configuration Management – breif
Configuration management is a support management technique that has been around for over 50 years, and is use by many organizations and companies. Originally created by the US Military, the ideas of this modality have been adopted, and adapted for use in many different industries.
Configuration management is a model of product, information, or process life cycle. It is a blueprint adapted to specific projects. Generally there are four elements to configuration management:
Identification – is the process of determining the attributes of a configuration item (Any intermediate work product, product component, or product placed under configuration management, for instance, a piece of equipment or software).
Change Control or Management – is the approval process required to change a configuration item.
Status Accounting – is the capacity to check an item against the “blueprint” provided by the configuration management model resulting from the identification process. For the purpose of making sure that a change made in a configuration item has gone according to plan.
Verification – answers the question “Have we made the right thing?” This is answered by, among other things, analyzing tracing reports, to ascertain that all requirements have been met, or by usability assessments, to determine the usability of the system. This check can be done when the change is made, or once the product is finished, preferably both.
This type of software exists to make tracking and managing your process, steps, or cycles a relatively simple task. Configuration management is also greatly used outside of the military, configuration management is used by project managers in a variety of fields, most notable in the software development field.
Much like a complex weapon system, a piece of software goes through many step before emerging as the finished product, and configuration management software can take some of the sting out of watching over this sometimes labyrinthine process. Dozens of options are available for those interested in using this concept of software, many available for free on the internet.
Some of these are made for a very specific set of tasks, while others are made for a wider scope of projects they can handle. No matter what field you are in, configuration management is an effective model for keeping a track of complicated development and production cycles and processes. Configuration management software can automate a great deal of this for you.
Configuration management may sound very complex, and it can be. However, it is perhaps the best method of project management to dealing with complex and intricate project requirements. Working with a configuration management system makes implementing incremental changes in a process or product over time much less of a challenge.