Configuration Management

One of the challenges of high-technology product development is to ensure that the product being manufactured is identical to the product that was designed, reviewed, tested, and validated. Although physical prototypes and functioning systems are often built during the engineering process, the true output of an engineering effort is "paper": drawings, code listings, specifications, process instructions, and other documents that define the "form, fit, and function" of a product or system. In most cases, this documentation must be able to "stand alone": It must provide complete manufacturing, installation, and servicing instructions without the need of engineering to supply supplementary information. The documentation must be absolutely accurate and deterministic. Product manufactured by different personnel on different days or by different manufacturing facilities must be identical in form, fit, and function. And, as models and versions change, the documentation must change with them. As those different models and versions proliferate in the field, the manufacturer should be able to reproduce the exact design documentation of any model and version for maintenance and servicing -- this is a requirement for products manufactured under ISO 9000 standards, European CE mark, and numerous regulated industries such as medical devices and aviation. Configuration management (CM) systems can range from a drawing drawer and file cabinet, to a modest file version control system, or a monstrous array of CD-ROM jukeboxes holding hundreds of terabytes of drawing images and document

How do I manage this documentation, protect it, and ensure that it is correct? What are the major elements of a good configuration management plan? When during the design process should I start formal configuration management? An engineering CM system for a product under development seems to have different requirements than a manufacturing CM system. How do I manage the more volatile documentation of a design under development? At what point do I need to be more "formal"? How do I control changes on design documentation during development? During the manufacturing lifecycle? Any differences? What tools are available to help with configuration management? How do I fit software into the "form, fit, and function" word of CM? Are there standards that can help me implement a CM system?

Here are some resources to help you answer those questions and understand the basics of CM. We've intentionally put a couple of general CM resources first, as online resources for CM tend to be dominated by software configuration management -- the nebulous nature of software creates special problems in the control of configurations, versions, releases, changes, and defects. Also, check our book list for classics like Practical CM: Best Configuration Management Practices for the 21st Century, which covers the broader subject of implementing product CM.

• The Institute of Configuration Management ICM is the headquarters of CMII, a "best industry practice" CM process for product development. Their web site contains an introduction to CMII, a description of their certification program, and their course abstracts, outlines, schedules, and locations.
• A concise definition of CM is "Looking after what you've got so far". If you want more definitions of CM (than you ever thought possible), there is an exhaustive list at ACME Project - SCM Definitions Page. This is part of the ACME Project ("Assembling Configuration Management Environments") web site, a collection of real-world guidance, tools, "best practices" and "lessons learned" for software configuration management. This extensive SCM resource site was constructed by Brad Appleton, a Motorola senior software engineer.
• Other on line introductory and tutorial articles include the following:
• Demystifying Software Configuration Management
• Configuration Management - a one-page overview of CM tools and companies from CrossTalk magazine (March, 1999)
• The CM Yellow Pages has a wealth of online papers, commercial system providers, consulting/training, CM tool reviews, and web links for Configuration Management and Problem Tracking systems. The CM Yellow Pages are now hosted by CM Today, published by AccuRev.com, a CM tool vendor that makes a very creditable effort at remaining vendor neutral while providing a valuable web resource.
• Steve McConnell gives some nuggets of "best practices" advice on configuration management and defect tracking in Best Practices: Gauging Software Readiness with Defect Tracking and Best Practices: Daily Build and Smoke Test. These are among the IEEE Software columns available at the Steve McConnell home page
• The SERL Configuration Management Papers includes online papers (the download format varies) on software configuration management, software release management, maintenance management, and more. Part of the Software Engineering Research Laboratory web site in the Department of Computer Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder (last updated in 1998).
• A set of browsable "legacy" (late 80s to early 90s) software CM documents on software configuration management is available online in the Engineering Practices area of the Carnegie-Mellon Software Engineering Institute web site. This collection includes the paper Configuration Management (CM) Plans: The Beginning to Your CM Solution, a tutorial on software configuration management plans.
• The paper Key Practices of the Capability Maturity Model, Version 1.1 documents CM's role as one of the key practices of implementing the Software Engineering Institute's Capability Maturity Model.
• Among the configuration management books in our book list:
• Practical CM: Best Configuration Management Practices for the 21st Century: A best-practices guide presenting proven methodologies, processes, and procedures for implementing product configuration management.
• Practical Software Configuration Management: The Latenight Developer's Handbook. This book is a no-time-for-theory tool to help a small team or individual developer quickly apply some control to their development process. It has a CM tool on its companion CD-ROM. Not a textbook on SCM.