configuration items

Identifying Configuration Items.
When any member of the project team creates any new item of project documentation that requires distribution to a variety of other project staff, they should submit it to the configuration administrator, or whoever is designated as being responsible for administering the configuration management procedures - in order that they can decide whether or not it constitutes a configuration item (CI). If the configuration administrator decides that the article does require the formal procedures of the configuration management method they should give it the status of CI.

The configuration administrator may decide that the article does not require all the rigors of configuration management and therefore not create a corresponding CI. In this case the article should be distributed & administered outside of the configuration management system. As CIs are identified, each should have a CI description record created for it - which should then be forwarded to the configuration administrator for filing. The CI description record should contain all of the information needed to identify and track the item through its development life cycle.

Configuration Item Issue & Submission.
Issue and submission procedures are concerned with the submission of and access to the identified CIs. These procedures will relate to administrative items as well as those pertaining to the evolving products. Without careful control over the issue and submission of CIs the configuration management process can collapse. Due to the increasing use of computer networks to support project work, control can be significantly more difficult than for products and hardcopy documents. The use of password protected files and directories should help, but the recall of obsolete versions can cause problems.

Only when the author of a new or revised product or document is satisfied that it is complete or ready for review should it be re-submitted to the configuration administrator. The submission procedure should not be used to introduce new CIs. In relation to quality reviews, the administrator should be responsible for issuing a copy to each reviewer, in line with the issue procedures, and filing the original in the relevant development folder. The configuration administrator should never issue the master copies of base-lined CIs. It is important that current official copies are readily identifiable, to avoid any obsolete documentation being used as the basis of future work. The administrator should maintain an issue log for each CI, which records: the identity and version of documents issued, the name of the recipient, the authority for and purpose of the issue and the date of issue. When a document is the subject of an approved change request, the administrator should issue a copy to the appropriate person to carry out the work and notify all other copy holders of the impending change. On completion it should be passed back to the administrator, who should only then make it available for further changes. Ideally when a new version of a CI is issued, earlier and now obsolete, copies should be recalled and destroyed.

Configuration Audits.
Configuration audits consists of cross checking the CI description records with the current version of the CI as held in its development folder. These audits are normally carried out ahead of each project review, although they can be requested at any time by the project manager or the project owner. Configuration audits should establish that: the current physical representation of each CI matches its current specification, that there is consistency in design between each CI and its parent, if there is a parent. Finally it also establishes that the documentation is up to date and all relevant standards are being adhered to. The configuration administrator should be responsible for producing all scheduled and ad hoc reports on the status of the CIs at an given point in time. Typical reports that may be required include numbers of change requests and project exception reports opened during a specific period, closed during a specific period, those currently open and unresolved document update requests.

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