Configuration Management originated in the United States Department of Defense in the 1950s as a technical management discipline for hardware material items—and it is now a standard practice in virtually every industry. The CM process became its own technical discipline sometime in the late 1960s when the DoD developed a series of military standards called the “480 series” (i.e., MIL-STD-480, MIL-STD-481 and MIL-STD-483) that were subsequently issued in the 1970s. Many of these functions and models have redefined CM from its traditional holistic approach to technical management. Some treat CM as being similar to a librarian activity, and break out change control or change management as a separate or stand alone discipline.
I’m a passionate blogger and Twitter addict, and I’m also the resident IT guy at SysAid Technologies. My tip is to include a mandatory step in the change ticket to ensure that the CMS/CMDB is updated before the change can be closed off as successful. Many types of component use electronic sensors to capture data which provides live condition monitoring. This data is analyzed on board or at a remote location by computer to evaluate its current serviceability and increasingly its likely future state using algorithms which predict potential future failures based on previous examples of failure through field experience and modeling. Insights and advice on various aspects such as operations, finance, marketing, and strategy. This can help companies identify and overcome challenges, optimize processes, and make informed decisions.
For this reason, engineers, contractors, and management are frequently forced to develop documentation reflecting the actual status of the item before they can proceed with a change. This reverse engineering process is wasteful in terms of human and other resources and can be minimized or eliminated using CM. Once you have your configuration management plan agreed and in place, it’s time to start phase two of your configuration management initiative with identification and baselining. Configuration change control is the systematic evaluation,
coordination, approval or disapproval, and implementation of all approved
changes in the configuration of a configuration item after formal establishment
of its identification. Configuration control covers the evaluation of all
Software Configuration Management Tools
change requests and change proposals and their subsequent approval and
disapproval.
Why do we need Configuration management?
If you are ISO certified or have legal requirements under the likes of IL3, BASEL 3, or NGN224, then you will have to be audited by an independent third party. This loss could have been avoided if the configuration status of the design description was known to the software developers. A development team spends two months coding from a baselined design description that, unbeknown to them, has outstanding change requests.
Such information is derived
from the configuration identification and control processes. CM applied over the life cycle of a system provides visibility and control of its performance, functional, and physical attributes. CM verifies that a system performs as intended, and is identified and documented in sufficient detail to support its projected life cycle. The CM process facilitates orderly management of system information and system changes for such beneficial purposes as to revise capability; improve performance, reliability, or maintainability; extend life; reduce cost; reduce risk and liability; or correct defects. The relatively minimal cost of implementing CM is returned manyfold in cost avoidance.
The SCMP (Software Configuration management planning) process planning begins at the early coding phases of a project. The outcome of the planning phase is the SCM plan which might be stretched or revised during the project. This stage involves tracking what each version has and the changes that lead to this version. Project managers must use the CM process as an
administrative support function to improve the effectiveness of management and
technical activities in the system development process. Configuration identification is a method of determining the scope of the software system.
With the help of this step, you can manage or control something even if you don’t know what it is. It is a description that contains the CSCI type (Computer Software Configuration Item), a project identifier and version https://www.globalcloudteam.com/ information. Regardless of the size and complexity of your organization, you need to have a plan for carrying out audits. Is there an existing tool that you can use such as Symantec Server Management Suite?
Status accounting provides the means by which the current state of the development can be judged and the history of the development life cycle can be traced. CM identifies systems configuration and components
(hardware, software, documentation, and data) and develops and implements the
change control process as specified in the configuration management plan. Configuration audits facilitate project management and
technical activities to verify project products. Certain types of
configuration audits (i.e., functional configuration audit (FCA), physical
configuration audit (PCA) are performed to verify that development was
completed satisfactorily, and to verify that each configuration item conforms
to the documentation that defines it. Configuration identification names specific products to be
developed during each life cycle phase according to the project plan and
quality assurance (QA) plan. The CM identification process is a mechanism for
identifying and labeling products (i.e., configuration items) produced during
the development process.
These are designed to offer operators guaranteed availability and make the picture more complex with the operator managing the asset but the OEM taking on the liability to ensure its serviceability. We will help you identify congestion points, select automation tools, and implement best practices to enhance productivity and reduce costs. This website is using a security service to protect itself from online attacks. There are several actions that could trigger this block including submitting a certain word or phrase, a SQL command or malformed data. Every organization is different but as a bare minimum, I would ensure that several spot checks are carried out on critical services every month and that a full, internal audit is taken every year.
The project manager must introduce configuration
management (CM) controls into the project as early as possible, but not later
than the acquisition period. Configuration management is a methodical,
systematic management control system that identifies physical and functional
characteristics, controls, and identifies and reports changes. The objective
of CM is to control and document the physical and functional characteristics of
the elements of a system to ensure that total system integrity is maintained. Change control is a procedural method which ensures quality and consistency when changes are made in the configuration object. In this step, the change request is submitted to software configuration manager.
Configuration Status Accounting is the process of recording and reporting the status of item identification and changes to items, data and documents. It includes configuration changes and change implementation status, modification status, deviations and waivers for an item, with references to supportive data and documentation. Again, the configuration management link to change management is vital here as a change freeze could be requested to support critical services in the event of an audit. The next stage of your configuration management initiative should be control and by this I mean change control, i.e. using change management as things change. You will need to work with change management personnel to ensure that everything under configuration control is covered by the corporate change policy. Ultimately, configuration management can’t function without change management because without proper control, your CMS/CMDB could be out of date within minutes and you’d be chasing a constantly moving target.
The software configuration management (SCM) process is looked upon by practitioners as the best solution to handling changes in software projects. It identifies the functional and physical attributes of software at various points in time, and performs systematic control of changes to the identified attributes for the purpose of maintaining software integrity and traceability throughout the software development life cycle. For example, configuration requirements may be different for a network firewall that functions as part of an organization’s Internet boundary versus one that functions as an internal local network firewall. The recording and reporting of information needed for configuration management including the status of configuration items (CIs), proposed changes and the implementation status of approved changes.
The benefits of a CMS/CMDB includes being able to perform functions like root cause analysis, impact analysis, change management, and current state assessment for future state strategy development. Example systems, commonly identifies themselves as IT Service Management (ITSM) systems, include FreshService, ServiceNow and Samanage. In Software Engineering, Software Configuration Management(SCM) is a process to systematically manage, organize, and control the changes in the documents, codes, and other entities during the Software Development Life Cycle. SCM is part of cross-disciplinary field of configuration management and it can accurately determine who made which revision. When carrying out your baselining, start with one service and map all of its components. Store the information centrally within your ITSM toolset if it has an integrated configuration management system (CMS) or configuration management database (CMDB).
- Configuration management is used to maintain an understanding of the status of complex assets with a view to maintaining the highest level of serviceability for the lowest cost.
- It is a description that contains the CSCI type (Computer Software Configuration Item), a project identifier and version information.
- CM may be performed on
specific products at the end of each life cycle phase.
- I’m a native New Yorker and I love everything connected to IT service management (ITSM).
- Configuration status accounting (CSA) defines the
procedures for obtaining and reporting information on the nontechnical status
of proposed changes, pending changes, and baselines.
The lack of CM, or its ineffectual implementation, can be very expensive and sometimes can have such catastrophic consequences such as failure of equipment or loss of life. Last week, in Part 1 of my two-part series on configuration management, I covered what configuration management is and the importance of planning, including scope and scaling. Now, in Part 2, I look at the configuration management disciplines of identification, control, status accounting, and auditing. Configuration management (CM) must support the development
project and the environment in which it will be maintained and operated.
These terms and definitions change from standard to standard, but are essentially the same.