Configuration management is the practice of systematically handling changes to maintain a project's integrity over time by implementing policies and procedures to track proposed changes, approve changes, and maintain documentation as a system changes; it originated in the 1950s at the US Department of Defense and is now standard practice; effective configuration management involves identifying project components, controlling versions, tracking status, and coordinating with change control.

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57086
Contract and Project Management
David Sowden, The University of Hull

2. 16
57086
Contract and Project Management
Configuration Management
David Sowden, The University of Hull

3. Overview
• Configuration Management
– Purpose
– History
– Procedure
– Managing the configuration
– Configuration management method
– Configuration management and change control
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4. Purpose
• Configuration Management:
• is the practice of handling changes systematically so that a project maintains
its integrity over time.
• implements the policies, procedures, techniques, and tools that are required to
manage, evaluate proposed changes, track the status of changes, and to maintain
an inventory of system and support documents as the system changes.
• programs and plans provide technical and administrative direction to the
development and implementation the procedures, functions, services, tools,
processes, and resources.
• allows both the Project Manager and Project Board to track requirements
throughout the project life cycle through acceptance. As changes are inevitably
made to the requirements and design, they must be approved and documented,
creating an accurate record of the system status.
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5. THE B
AS ICS
Purpose
Systems to allow you to
track and find items easily
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6. History
Configuration
Management is a
formal management
approach developed
by the USAF for the
US Department of
Defence in the 1950s
as a technical
management
discipline for
hardware material
items—and it is now a
standard practice in
virtually every
industry
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7. Procedure - Managing the configuration
• Configuration Management consists of five
basic functions:
–Planning:
–Identification:
–Control:
–Status accounting:
–Verification:
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8. Managing the configuration
• Configuration Management Plan will
contain:
– An Explanation of the purpose of configuration management
– A description of (or reference to) the method being used
– Reference to any configuration management systems or tools
being used
– How and where the product will be stored
– What filing and retrieval security there will be
– How the products and the various versions of these will be
identified
– Where responsibilities for configuration management lie.
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9. Managing the configuration
• Configuration identification, each product requires a unique
identifier, as a minimum, the coding scheme should identify:
– The product in which the product is created
– Type of product, for example, document, hardware
– Product title
– Latest version number
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10. Configuration management method (1)
• may be manual or automated, and should cover the following
functions:
– Identification of individual sub-products of the final product
– Identification of those products that are required in order to
produce other products
– Establishing a unique coding system for each product
– Identification of the ‘owner’ of a product
– Identifying of whom creation or amendment of a version of a
product has be delegated
– Recording, monitoring and reporting the current status of each
product as it progresses through its own life cycle
– Filing all documentation produced during the development life of
the product

11. Configuration management method (2)
• cover the following functions (continuation from previous slide):
– Retention of all master copies (within the configuration library)
– Provision of procedures to ensure the safety and security aspects
of products
– Distribution of copies of all product and recording of holders of
copies
– Maintenance of record of relationship between products - so that
no product is changed without being able to check for possible
impact on related products
– Providing administrative support for change to all products
– Establishment of baselines
– Performance of configuration audits

12. Configuration breakdown
Product A
A1 A2 A3 A4
A3.1 A3.2 A3.3

13. Configuration management and change control
There must be a close liaison between configuration management and change
control.
A key element is the ability to identify and control different versions of a
product -
Once a product has been approved, that version of it NEVER changes
If a change is required, a new version of the product is created that
will encompass the change
The change should be referenced to the relevant Project Issue
A product should not be issued for change to more that one person
at a time
Where there are multiple changes, they must be combined in some
way and the completion of the product encompassing all changes
must be delegated to one person
This may be difficult in a large complex environment, but multiple
change should be co-ordinated by one person to avoid clashes
Where possible, the master copy of any product should never be
issued, only a copy.
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14. TASK
Review your own
‘configuration management’
systems