Role in Configuration Management
The term configuration item can be applied to anything designated for the application of the elements of configuration management and treated as a single entity in the configuration management system.
- The entity must be uniquely identified so that it can be distinguished from all other configuration items.
- From the perspective of the implementer of a change, the CI is the "what" of the change. Altering a specific baseline version of a configuration item creates a new version of the same configuration item, itself a baseline. In examining the effect of a change, two of the questions that must be asked are:
-
- What configuration items are affected?
- How have the configuration items been affected?
- Its use within a product can be traced in a robust status accounting system.
- It is subject to acceptance verification based on established criteria.
A release (itself a versioned entity) may consist of several configuration items. The set of changes to each configuration item will appear in the release notes, and the notes may contain specific headings for each configuration item. A complex hardware configuration item may have many levels of configuration items beneath its top level; each configuration item level must meet the same fundamental elements of the configuration management system.
In addition to its purpose in the implementation and management of a change, each configuration item's listing and definition should act as a common vocabulary across all groups connected to the product. It should be defined at a level such that an individual involved with product marketing and an individual at the coalface of implementation can agree to a common definition when they use the name of the lection and identification of configuration items for a particular project can be seen as the first step in developing an overall architecture of the product from the top down.
Configuration items, their versions, and their changes form the basis of any configuration audit.
Read more about this topic: Configuration Item
Famous quotes containing the words role in, role and/or management:
“So successful has been the camera’s role in beautifying the world that photographs, rather than the world, have become the standard of the beautiful.”
—Susan Sontag (b. 1933)
“Friends serve central functions for children that parents do not, and they play a critical role in shaping children’s social skills and their sense of identity. . . . The difference between a child with close friendships and a child who wants to make friends but is unable to can be the difference between a child who is happy and a child who is distressed in one large area of life.”
—Zick Rubin (20th century)
“No officer should be required or permitted to take part in the management of political organizations, caucuses, conventions, or election campaigns. Their right to vote and to express their views on public questions, either orally or through the press, is not denied, provided it does not interfere with the discharge of their official duties. No assessment for political purposes on officers or subordinates should be allowed.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)