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Configuration Management

Definition

Configuration Management, CM, is a process model established to maintainthe consistency and integrity of a system or software product throughout it's lifecycle.
CM can be defined as the control of changes made to a product's hardware,software and documentation.
ITIL, Information Technology Infrastructure Library, has defined three CM specializations, Software CM, Hardware CM and Operational CM which supports a historical CM methodologies.
Sample Configuration Management Plan
CMDB Best Practices
CM Business Proposal
CM Audit

History

CM was created by the U.S. Department of Defense in the 1950's as a technical management process. It was created to manage and control the highly complex software and systems being developed.

Key Concepts

The key capabilities of CM systems today are the identification and control of complex systems and software as they evolve over time.

Version control systems and configuration management databases, CMDB, maintaina history of changes to systems and software as they evolve. They allow for access to current or past versions of systems and software. This is a very powerful concept and tool for maintaining version control.

Configuration Management has four basic elements:

CMDB - Configuration Management Database

Change Management

Build and Release Support

Process Management

CMDB

A CMDB is a repository of all the metadata related to systems and softwarein an organization. It holds information such as owner, version number,server names, dependency information and much much more.

A key success factor in implementing a CMDB is the automation of the collectionof the information and on-going updates to the database.

Change Management

Change Management addresses issues of problem tracking and change control andpresentation and analysis of management information derived from these sources.Gathering management information is greatly simplified if change features arepart of the CM system. Without this coordination, there maybe no cross-referencingbetween different systems and databases.

Build and Release Support

Building different systems can take large work efforts. Inefficient buildprocesses can consume many engineer hours. Intelligent build processes can dramatically reduce build times.

Release processes can allow for the tracking of what specific versions of softwareand systems a particular user is using. This allows for the complete understandingof the downstream effects of changes in any of the tracked systems.

Process Management

CM process management allows organizations to ensure they can meet internal and external auditing standards, such as, ITIL, SOX, ISO 9000 and CMMI standards.

CM process management ensures that process, testing and quality assurancepractices were followed prior to release of systems or software.

A relatively new trend is to use the information held in the CM systems to linkto information in Project Management systems. This should increase the couplingof CM and Project Management to better deliver and report on project risk and status.