Purpose
To Identify, assess and control any potential and approved changes to baselines.
Provide knowledge on how to do Configuration Management.
Definitions
Issue and change control
Procedures to ensure that all changes that may affect the project’s agreed baselines are identified, assessed and either approved, rejected or deferred.
Configuration management
Technical and administrative activities concerned with the creation, maintenance and controlled change of configuration throughout the life cycle of a product (or item).
Change Authority is the responsibility of the Project Board and can be delegated (to Project Manager or an appointed group of people with Project Assurance responsibilities).
Change budget
A sum of money that the customer and supplier agree to use to fund the cost of requests for change. The Project Board can limit the cost of a single change or the amount to be spent in any one stage.
Configuration item
Entity that is subject to configuration management.
Release
A complete and consistent set of products that are managed, tested and deployed as a single entity to be handed over to the user(s).
Issue
The term issue covers anything happening during the project which needs to be resolved and may effect a performance target (six variables). Types of issue can be Request for change, Off-specification or Problem/concern.
Approach to Change
The following six management products are used to control changes and do configuration management:
- Configuration Management Strategy
How to control changes and do configuration management in this project.
- Product Status Accounts
Reports on one or a group of products (CMDB).
- Daily Log
Informal information for the Project Manager.
- Issue Report
Each issue can have an Issue Report.
Configuration Management Strategy
The Configuration Management Strategy must define the configuration management procedure and the issue and change control procedure. It also states the tools and techniques that will be used and the records that will be maintained. The type of reports and their format is defines. The timing of the activities in the procedures and the reporting is defined. The roles and responsibilities for Configuration Management and issue and change control are defined.
Scales for prioritising issues and for rating the severity of issues and their relation to the management level to handle such an issue, as agreed in the Initiation Stage, is defined in the Configuration Management Strategy.
Example for determining Priority:
MoSCoW technique:
Must have | The change is essential for the viability of the project. |
Should have | The change is important and its absence weakens the Business Case. |
Could have | The change is useful but its absence does not weaken the Business Case. |
Won’t have | The change is not essential nor important and can wait. |
Example for scaling Severity
(each level is linked to a management level that can decide):
Level 1 (Minor) | Project Support |
Level 2 (Normal) | Project Manager |
Level 3 (Significant) | Change Authority |
Level 4 (Major) | Project Board |
Level 5 (Critical) | Corporate / Programme Management |
Configuration Management procedure
At the start of the project:
Planning | What level of Configuration Management is required by the project? |
Identification | Establish a coding system for enabling a unique identifier to be assigned to each configuration item. Specify and identify all components of the project’s products |
Example for scaling Severity
(each level is linked to a management level that can decide):
Control | Approve and baseline products and make changes only with the agreement of the appropriate authorities. Store and retrieve of all relevant information relevant to the management of the project. Archiving of all documentation produced during the lifetime of the project. |
Status accounting | Product Status Account: Check up & report on all current and historical date concerning each (group of) product(s). |
Verification and audit | Compare actual status of all products against the state recorded in the Configuration Item Records. Reporting any discrepancies. Make sure the Configuration Management procedure is followed according to the Configuration Management Strategy. |
Issue and Change Control procedure:
Capture | Determine issue type, determine severity/priority. Log register. |
Examine | Assess impact on project objectives. Check severity/priority. |
Propose | Identify and evaluate options. Recommend options. |
Decide | Escalate if beyond delegated authority. Approve, reject or defer recommended option. |
Implement | Take actions and update records and plans. |