Configuration File Management

There are two important definitions of configuration management.

1. This may be an expression for the identification, tracking and management of all project assets. This definition would be particularly relevant in software development projects, where the term “configuration” refers to all artifacts, programmed components, executables, etc.

The items you track for configuration management are called “configuration items” in the CMMI model. These configuration items can be interpreted generally to include, for example:

Project documentation and deliverables

Descriptions of deliverables and models (templates)

Design elements

The source code, and in this case, your configuration management process must include your software change management process (*)

Test scenarios, test plans and test cases, etc. (**)

Hardware and software

Your final deliverables (ie the software)

Other physical assets of the project, including trim, auxiliary materials, machinery, etc.

(*) Translator’s notes:

(*) A “source code” is the original version of a program, software written in a language understandable by a human, or the programmer (s). This text can either be interpreted or compiled by computer. In short, these are the text files needed for compilation.

(**) A “test case” in the field of software engineering is a set of conditions or variables for determining whether a requirement for the IT solution is fully or partially met.

2. It is also an expression for the identification, tracking, and management of metadata (***) used to describe the functional and physical characteristics of the product or component that the project is creating. This is closer to the definition of configuration management used by the Project Management Institute (PMI). In this definition, the confirmation of an asset basically relates to the detailed characteristics and functionalities associated with the asset. For example, if the result of your project is the manufacture of a laptop, the configuration would designate the size of the hard drive, its speed, the specifications of the driver of the digital versatile disk (also called “

Translator’s note: (***) a metadata (a word consisting of the Greek prefix “meta” indicating self-reference, so the word properly means “given from / about data”) is a datum used to define or describe another given whatever its medium (paper or electronic).

Many, if not most, projects do not take into account the management of physical assets used by the project, such as equipment or raw materials. This type of management is usually provided by centralized departments of the organization. Thus, for example, the monitoring and management of the computers used by a project are carried out, generally, at the level of the company or a department thereof. The project manager who needs computers for the team, must not manage or track these assets.

If your project is concerned with asset tracking, this monitoring is usually done outside the domain of the project manager; it is rather supported by specialists within the team. For example, if your project is to build a plane, tracking equipment is vital. However, specialists within the team are responsible for managing this aspect of the project. If you are working on a software development project, you must monitor and control software changes. However, there are software change management tools that can perform this management.

All of this being said, some very large projects need to manage the configuration, and if they do, the process can be managed using several techniques that are in this content management section.

The following are the configuration management process:

Planning. You must plan in advance the development of processes, procedures, tools, files, and databases to manage the configuration. You also need to get agreement on how important they should be, how to define them, the categories that should be grouped together, how to classify them, count them, report on them, and so on. The results of this pre-planning are documented in the Configuration Management Plan.

The is an important part of configuration management, since the elements in question can be defined in several ways. Your definition may only include metadata or asset information, not the actual assets themselves.

Part of your planning process will be assigning tracking numbers in the configuration to each type of configuration item.

Follow-up. It is important to understand the starting state for all configuration items. In other words, for each configuration item, you need to know what you have at the beginning of the project. In many cases, you have no information to begin with. The goal of your monitoring processes is to make sure that you can track any changes that a configuration item undergoes throughout the project.

You need processes and systems designed to know when assets are assigned to your project, where they will go, who they will become, who is responsible for it, and how they will be disposed of. As a project actually has a beginning and an end, ultimately all the goods have to go somewhere. This can be in a deliverable, in the operational area or in support, in case of breakage, etc. You must be able to dissect each deliverable of the project and show where all the parts and parts come from, and where they will end up once the project is completed.

The same ideas apply if you are tracking asset metadata through configuration management. You must understand the starting point of the configuration and keep track of changes that have occurred during the project. These remarks could be more detailed. For example, if you are making a laptop, the appearance of an additional requirement, say to ensure the notebook’s compatibility with new hardware, can result in dozens or even hundreds of changes over time. to the previous configuration of the laptop.

Management. Managing assets means they are safe, protected and used for appropriate purposes. For example, there is no point in keeping track of acquired assets when your project does not need them in the first place. Likewise, your tracking system can show that expensive items are lying in an unsecured storage place, but is this really the right place for them? Managing assets is about getting what you need and only what you need. You must also make sure that the necessary goods are in the right place at the right time.

Establish reports. You must be able to disseminate information about the state of the configuration, usually to determine which elements are in your possession, where they are and in what state; you must also prepare financial reports about their cost, budget, depreciation, etc.

If you track the configuration by means of meta-data you will be able to create a complete report regarding the requirements of the product in question at any point in the project.

The audit.The audit, in this context, is to confirm that the actual configuration elements (whatever they are) at any given time, correspond to what you expected. Many projects experience difficulties because they are starting to lose track of physical assets (eg, hardware, supplies, code, or other configuration items), or because physical characteristics (metadata ) Deliverables are different from what was expected. The audit process is used to validate that the configuration items match your expectations. These expectations are based on the initial baseline, what is add any request for change that you have made so far. If your configuration items have descriptions and other metadata, you should validate that the descriptions and features are consistent with how the deliverables are actually designed.

If the audits are not performing as expected, this would indicate that your configuration tracking process is inadequate and that you need to improve your processes to account for any changes. You should identify ways to change your configuration over time and verify that you are incorporating all of these circumstances into your configuration tracking process.

Configuration audits are difficult and costly in terms of staff and time. However, they are vital to ensure that the final solution is complete and correct and that you have considered all the properties of the configuration that were used to develop the final solution.

It is important that the entire configuration process is validated periodically through situation audits of the configuration elements. This includes physically inspecting, counting, and comparing these elements with the expected results of your configuration management system. You should also audit the configuration change process to make sure that the appropriate processes are applied .

If you practice configuration management in your project, we suggest that you assign a i suggest that you assign a specific person or company, and use a product like Config, to the configuration manager function. This may be a part-time position, depending on the amount of items to track and manage for your project. This person is responsible for the overall process, and must focus on planning, management and audit responsibilities. If your project is large enough, you can also assign a manager to the configuration virtual library. This is an administrative position that is built around fieldwork and the necessary reporting and monitoring responsibilities.

Depending on the size of the project, you may need a specific configuration committee made up of senior managers and employees. This configuration committee will have to approve the overall configuration plan and the elements of the latter. It can also approve large, specific changes to items that occur as part of your configuration management process.

Of course, if your project (or program) is large enough, such as the construction of an aircraft, an entire service will likely have to do this work, possibly under the direction of the Procurement and Supply Department.