Summary

Establish and maintain a configuration management and change management system for controlling work products.

Description

A configuration management system includes the storage media, procedures, and tools for accessing the system. A configuration management system can consist of multiple subsystems with different implementations that are appropriate for each configuration management environment.

In some service domains, CM is focused on document versions and change control.

A change management system includes the storage media, procedures, and tools for recording and accessing change requests.

Example Work Products



  1. Configuration management system with controlled work products
  2. Configuration management system access control procedures
  3. Change request database


Subpractices



1. Establish a mechanism to manage multiple levels of control.

The level of control is typically selected based on work objectives, risk, and resources. Control levels can vary in relation to the project or service lifecycle, type of system under development, and specific work requirements.

 

Example levels of control include the following:
  • Uncontrolled: Anyone can make changes.
  • Work-in-progress: Authors control changes.
  • Released: A designated authority authorizes and controls changes and relevant stakeholders are notified when changes are made.


Levels of control can range from informal control that simply tracks changes made when configuration items are being developed to formal configuration control using baselines that can only be changed as part of a formal configuration management process.



2. Provide access control to ensure authorized access to the configuration management system.

3. Store and retrieve configuration items in a configuration management system.

4. Share and transfer configuration items between control levels in the configuration management system.

5. Store and recover archived versions of configuration items.

6. Store, update, and retrieve configuration management records.

7. Create configuration management reports from the configuration management system.

8. Preserve the contents of the configuration management system.

 

Examples of preservation functions of the configuration management system include the following:
  • Backup and restoration of configuration management files
  • Archive of configuration management files
  • Recovery from configuration management errors



9. Revise the configuration management structure as necessary.