23.4 Configuration Management Plan: Management and Relations to the Environment

23.4 Configuration Management Plan: Management and Relations to the Environment

This chapter describes the roles, organization, and allocation of responsibilities. It also describes the interface to users and marketing or customers, depending on whether a bespoke general product is being developed or a system for a customer. A special kind of interface may be to subcontractors or suppliers. This may be included in a separate chapter, depending on its importance. This chapter may be divided into the following sections:

1. Organization

2. Responsibilities

3. Interface Control

4. Subcontractor Management

5. Relevant Standards

Organization

This section specifies the overall organization of configuration management and how this fits into the rest of the project organization. It describes in general terms the roles to be filled.

Responsibilities

This section must define clearly and unambiguously

• Who is responsible for performing which configuration management activitiesidentification, placement in storage, change control, and registration and reporting of available information?

• What responsibility each of the organizational roles has in connection with approval of objects in general, especially deliveries, such as when does the project manager have the final word and when does the person responsible for quality assurance?

• What is the responsibility of users, customers, and marketing in connection with approvals ?

The "who" in the first bullet may be in the form of roles and detailed descriptions of the responsibilities of the people filling the roles. It may be a good idea to structure this information in a RASIC chart, as shown in Figure 23-1. A detailed allocation of resources may be deferred to chapter 4 of the plan.

Figure 23-1. RASIC Chart Example

Outline the people responsible for deciding when an object is to be placed under configuration management. This section should include a reference to a quality assurance plan or the project plan that defines approval criteria for objects of various types. This is to ensure that objects are not placed under configuration management too early and that those that should be, are.

Interface Control

Define how interfaces to external objects (software, hardware) are handled with regard to configuration management. The plan should especially identify:

• Who (which organizational unit) carries the responsibility for the systems and subsystems the system in question has interfaces to.

• Which people to contact in the external organizational units concerning collective management and coordination of interfaces.

• Who in the project/organization carries the responsibility for managing which interfaces.

Subcontractor Management

Subcontractors also make changes and new versions, and it's often necessary to consider that these may be released during the project's life cycle. To avoid problems, it's a good idea to define how new versions are to be tested for approval, who does it, and how deliveries from the subcontractor(s) are introduced into the project in a controlled way. In some cases, the contract will include requirements on this subject.

Relevant Standards

This section describes guidelines and policies to which the project adheres. Some companies have general configuration management guidelines and procedures. These are described with references, as well as details on how and why they have been tailored to the project.