Category: All CM Articles

  • Why are we still so confused about what “Configuration Management” means? Yes, this is the 21st Century.

    Why are we still so confused about what “Configuration Management” means?  Yes, this is the 21st Century. Author: Eddie R. Williams, PMP Contributing Author: Marc Gravez   I.            Introduction We still have confusion, debates, and even arguments about what the meaning of “configuration management,” “configuration,” and what constitutes a “configuration item” (software/hardware/firmware). Commentary Recently, I was in a networking group meeting, on Zoom of…

  • Why CM? What is the SDLC? System/Software Development Life Cycle Process Explained

    “I was still having problems with understanding Configuration Management but after reading your book, I do know why I was having difficulties with the entire development life cycle focusing only on software version control and software library development.” Those who have purchased the book, (Management Control and Quality! – Software/Firmware Configuration Management – available in…

  • Configuration Management Best (and Good) Practices

    1. Perform Configuration Management up front and throughout projects and programs (See book and articles to understand and apply Configuration Management) 2. Conduct an assessment, if required 3. Select tools, methodologies * 4. Perform Requirements, Design, and Product Management 5. Prepare a requirements document/documentation or specification with a traceability matrix. For the Agile development process…

  • Configuration Management (CM) is Misunderstood

    For Configuration Management (CM) we have been concentrating so much on software and version control, (tools and applications), that we have forgotten that CM begins before you have the software or its components and modules (units). See definition for CM in Software/Firmware Configuration Management. With this misunderstanding comes the following that I have still encountered…

  • Configuration Management Clarified

    I wanted to address a real problem that we in the IT industry seem to think has gone away. Understanding What Configuration Management (CM) is. As stated in Software/Firmware Configuration Management and in articles. ……. There’s simply no problem with explaining what CM is by discussing and addressing each of its processes/activities (no different than…

  • As IT professionals much of our project information is not quite organized and much of our lessons learned go undocumented. What does that say for the 21th Century?

    Have we learned from the past failure of projects? That is the question for 2010 and beyond. I am not sure we have. Although there have been improvements, how much is the question? Some researches seem to say that a significant increase of 100%. 100% of what? When the rate for successful projects is not…

  • IT Standards, Past and Present

    There are many standards, past and present, and if we use and study them we would see that they have been the basis of what we have today in many technologies and best/good practices (realizing also that each continues to be changed and/or improved). It is very interesting to trace a standard’s history and to…

  • Federal Regulations for Pharmaceutical and Healthcare

    It seems to be correct that configuration management could have saved money during Y2K. Within the Healthcare and Pharmaceutical industries, compliance with HIPAA and Part 11, respectively, is still becoming a challenge. You state that configuration management could be helpful with compliance. Why? Yes, Configuration Management could have been helpful then and now. If the…

  • A restatement about lessons learned…

    RayAnn received another several emails recently but they were questions that you would have thought were part of the past. The emails indicated that the managers were documenting lessons learned and having a end-of- the-project meeting to discuss lessons that were only gathered after or during the last phase of the project. Unbelievable! Hear is…

  • Lessons Learned

    Sometimes we don’t want to admit we have made a mistake or that there were issues with a process or its activities. But how else are we to correct our mistakes and learn from our mistakes; to improve. Whether one thinks it can lead to finger pointing is not a reason not to have the…