Project Configuration Management

Definition

Project Configuration Management

the configuration management activity consisting of the cohesive collection of all tasks that are primarily performed to manage an project’s baselines of configuration items

Classification

As illustrated in the preceding figure, project configuration management is part of the following inheritance hierarchy:

• Type: Abstract
• Superclass: Configuration Management
• Subclasses:
  • Business (Re)engineering Projects:
    • Business Reengineering Project
      A project, the mission of which is to completely reengineer a business.
    • Business Digital Strategy Project
      A project, the mission of which is to produce a digital strategy for a business.
    • Business Reengineering Estimation Project
      A project, the mission of which is to produce an estimate of the time, cost, and effort required to reengineer a business.
    • Business Rearchitecting Project
      A project, the mission of which is to rearchitect a business to meet its new digital strategy.
  • Application-Specific Projects:
    • Application Development Project
      A project, the mission of which is to develop a new version of an application.
    • Application Estimation Project
      A project, the mission of which is to produce an estimate of the time, cost, and effort required to develop a version of the application.
    • Application Completion Project
      A project, the mission of which is to complete a new version of an application based on the results of an application estimation project.
    • Application Usage Project
      A project, the mission of which is to operate and maintain an application.
    • Application Retirement Project
      A project, the mission of which is to retire an application from service.
  • Reusable Component Development Projects:
    • Reusable Requirements Project
      A project, the mission of which is to produce the reusable requirements for a major component, subdomain, or function of an application.
    • Reusable Architecture Project
      A project, the mission of which is to produce a reusable (reference) architecture.
    • Framework Project
      A project, the mission of which is to produce a reusable framework of components.
    • Reusable Components Project
      A project, the mission of which is to produce a set of reusable components.

Responsibilities

The typical responsibilities of Project Configuration Management are to:

• Ensure that stakeholders know the major components of the project.
• Minimize project disruption due to uncontrolled changes to major components of the project.
• Provide an audit trail on why, when, and by whom baselined work products are changed.
• Identify configuration items and baselines to enable the retrieval of specific versions of work products and baselines.
• Control changes to configuration items and baselines to minimize project disruption.
• Report the status of changes to configuration items and baselines to all relevant stakeholders.
• Audit baselines to ensure that they consist of the correct versions of the correct configuration items.

Preconditions

Configuration Management typically may begin when the following conditions hold:

• The endeavor is started.
• The configuration management team, change control board, and project team are:
  • Initially staffed.
  • Adequately trained in configuration management.

Completion Criteria

Project Configuration Management is typically complete when the following conditions hold:

• The project is completed.
• The associated configuration items have been retired.

Tasks

Project Configuration Management typically involves the following teams performing the following tasks in an iterative, incremental, parallel, and time-boxed manner:

• Configuration Management Team, which performs:
  • Configuration Management Planning
  • Configuration Identification
  • Version Control
  • Configuration Control
  • Configuration Status Reporting
  • Configuration Auditing
• Change Control Board, which performs:
  • Configuration Control
• Project Team, which performs:
  • Version Control

Environments

Project Configuration Management is typically performed using the following environment(s) and associated tools:

• Reuse Environment:
  • Configuration Management Tool
  • Problem Reporting Tool
• Development Environments:
  • Configuration Management Tool
  • Problem Reporting Tool
• Test Environment:
  • Configuration Management Tool
  • Problem Reporting Tool
• Production Environments:
  • Configuration Management Tool
  • Problem Reporting Tool

Work Products

Project Configuration Management typically results in the production of all or part of the following work products in the configuration management work product set:

• Configuration Management Plan
• Change Request Form
• Configuration Identification Report
• Configuration Control Board Meeting Minutes
• Configuration Status Report
• Configuration Audit Report

Phases

Project Configuration Management tasks are typically performed during the following phases:

Guidelines

• This activity is documented using the typical configuration for significant projects. It is intended to be configured (i.e., instantiated, extended, and tailored) to meet the needs of specific projects.
• The preconditions of this activity should be the union of the preconditions of its constituent tasks.
• The completion criteria for this activity should be the union of the postconditions of its constituent tasks.