Configuration management ( CM ) is a system engineering process for establishing and maintaining the consistency of the performance, functional, and physical attributes of products with operational requirements, design and operational information throughout life. The CM process is widely used by military engineering organizations to manage changes across complex systems system cycles, such as weapons systems, military vehicles, and information systems. Beyond the military, the CM process is also used with IT service management as defined by ITIL, and with other domain models in civil engineering and other industrial engineering segments such as roads, bridges, canals, dams, and buildings.
Video Configuration management
Introduction
CM applied during the life cycle of a system provides visibility and control over its physical, functional, and physical attributes. CM verifies that a system is functioning properly, and identified and documented in sufficient detail to support the projected life cycle. The CM process facilitates orderly management of system information and system changes for useful purposes such as to revise capabilities; improve performance, reliability, or maintenance; prolong life; reduce costs; reduce risks and liabilities; or the correct defects. The relatively small implementation cost of the CM is returned multiplied in cost avoidance. Lack of CM, or its ineffective implementation, can be very expensive and can sometimes lead to catastrophic consequences such as equipment failure or loss of life.
CM emphasizes the functional relationship between sections, subsystems, and systems to effectively control system changes. It helps to verify that proposed changes are systematically considered to minimize adverse effects. System changes are proposed, evaluated and implemented using standardized and systematic approaches that ensure consistency, and proposed changes are evaluated in terms of anticipated impact on the whole system. CM verifies that changes are made as specified and that item and system documentation reflects the actual configuration. The full CM program includes provisions for storing, tracking, and updating all system information on components, subsystems and basic systems.
Structured CM programs ensure that documentation (eg, requirements, design, testing, and acceptance documentation) for items accurate and consistent with the actual physical design of items. In many cases, without CM, documentation exists but is inconsistent with the item itself. For this reason, engineers, contractors, and management are often forced to develop documentation that reflects the true status of the goods before they can proceed with the change. This reverse engineering process is wasteful in terms of human and other resources and can be minimized or eliminated using CM.
Maps Configuration management
History
Configuration Management came from the US Department of Defense in the 1950s as a technical management discipline for hardware materials - and is now a standard practice in virtually every industry. The CM process became its own technical discipline in the late 1960s when the Department of Defense developed a series of military standards called "480 series" (ie, MIL-STD-480, MIL-STD-481 and MIL-STD-483) which were later issued in 1970s. In 1991, the "480 series" was consolidated into a single standard known as MIL-STD-973 which was later replaced by MIL-HDBK-61 based on a common DoD goal that reduced the number of military standards supporting the technical industry. standards supported by evolving organizational standards (SDO). This marks the beginning of what has now evolved into the most widely distributed and accepted standard in CM, ANSI-EIA-649-1998. Now widely adopted by many organizations and institutions, CM disciplinary concepts include systems engineering (SE), Integrated Logistics Support (ILS), Maturity Model Integration (CMMI), ISO 9000, Prince2 project management methods, COBIT, Information Technology Infrastructure Library ITIL), product life cycle management, and Application Lifecycle Management. Many of these functions and models have redefined the CM from its traditional holistic approach to technical management. Some treat CM as similar to the activity of librarians, and decide the control of change or change management as a separate or stand-alone discipline.
Overview
CM is a systematic change management practice so that the system maintains its integrity over time. CM applies policies, procedures, techniques and tools that manage, evaluate proposed changes, track change status, and maintain system inventory and support documents as the system changes. CM programs and plans provide technical and administrative direction for the development and implementation of procedures, functions, services, tools, processes, and resources needed to successfully develop and support complex systems. During system development, CM allows program management to track needs throughout the life cycle through reception and operation and maintenance. Because changes are inevitable in requirements and design, changes must be approved and documented, creating accurate records of the system state. Ideally CM processes are applied throughout the system life cycle. Most professionals are mixed or confused with Asset management (AM), where he keeps the assets in hand. The main difference between CM and AM is that the former does not manage the aspects of financial accounting but on services supported by the system.
The CM process for hardware and software configuration items consists of five different disciplines as defined in MIL-HDBK-61A and in ANSI/EIA-649. This discipline is undertaken as a policy and procedure for establishing a baseline and for conducting standard change management processes. IEEE 12207 Process IEEE 12207.2 also has this activity and adds "release and shipping management".
Five disciplines are:
- CM Planning and Management: Formal documents and plans to guide CM programs that include items such as:
- personnel
- responsibilities and resources
- training requirements
- administrative meeting guidelines, including procedure definitions and tools
- baselining process
- configuration control and configuration status-configuration
- naming convention
- audits and reviews
- CM subcontractor/vendor requirements
- Configuration Identification (CI): consists of setting and maintaining the baseline, which defines the system or architecture of subsystems, components, and each development at any point in time. This is the basis on which changes to any part of a system are identified, documented, and then traced through design, development, testing, and final delivery. CI gradually establishes and maintains the current definitive basis for Configuration of Accounting Status (CSA) of a system and configuration item (CI) throughout their life cycle (development, production, deployment, and operational support) to disposal.
- Configuration Control: includes evaluation of all changes requests and proposals for change, and further approval or rejection. This includes the process of modifying controls on system design, hardware, firmware, software, and documentation.
- Configuring Accounting Status: including the process of recording and reporting the description of configuration items (eg hardware, software, firmware, etc.) and all departures from the baseline during design and production. If there is a suspected issue, verify the basic configuration and approved modifications can be determined quickly.
- Verification and Audit Configuration: an independent review of hardware and software for the purpose of assessing compliance with specified performance requirements, appropriate and commercial military standards, as well as functional, allocated, and product baselines. The configuration audit verifies that the system configuration documentation and subsystems match the characteristics of functional and physical performance before being accepted into the architecture baseline.
Software
The traditional software configuration management process (SCM) is viewed by practitioners as the best solution to handle changes in software projects. It identifies the functional and physical attributes of the software at various time points, and performs systematic control of changes in the attributes identified for the purpose of maintaining software integrity and traceability throughout the software development lifecycle.
The SCM process further defines the need to track changes, and the ability to verify that the last submitted software has all the planned enhancements that should be included in the release. It identifies four procedures that must be established for each software project to ensure that the SCM sound process is implemented. They:
- Identify the configuration
- Configuration control
- Accounting configuration status
- Configuration audit
These terms and definitions change from standard to standard, but are essentially the same.
- Identification of a configuration is the process of identifying an attribute that defines every aspect of a configuration item. A configuration item is a product (hardware and/or software) that has an end user destination. These attributes are recorded in the configuration documentation and are baselined. Underlying an attribute forces the process of the formal configuration change control to be performed if this attribute is changed.
- The configuration change controls are the set of processes and approval stages required to change the configuration item's attributes and to reassign them.
- Configuring accounting status is the ability to record and report the configuration baselines associated with each configuration item at any time.
- Configuration audits are broken down into functional and physical configuration audits. They occur either during delivery or when it affects changes. The functional configuration audit ensures that the functional and performance attributes of the configuration items are reached, while the physical configuration audit ensures that the configuration items are installed in accordance with detailed design documentation requirements.
Configuration management database
The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) establishes the use of Configuration management system (CMS) or Configuration management database (CMDB) as a means to achieve industry best practices for Configuration Management. CMDB is used to track Configuration Item (CI) and dependencies among them, where CI represents matters within a company that are eligible to track and manage, such as but not limited to computers, software, software licenses, shelves, network devices, storage, and even components in the goods.
The benefits of CMS/CMDB include being able to perform functions such as root cause analysis, impact analysis, change management, and assessment of the current state for future country strategy development. Examples of systems, generally identify themselves as IT Services Management (ITSM) systems, including FreshService, ServiceNow and Samanage.
Information warranty
For information assurance, CM can be defined as security feature management and assurance through change controls made for hardware, software, firmware, documentation, testing, test equipment, and test documentation throughout the life cycle of the information system. CM for information assurance, sometimes referred to as S ecure C on M anagement, depending on the performance, functional, and physical attributes of the IT platform and products and their environment to determine the exact security and warranty features used to measure the system configuration status. For example, a configuration requirement may be different for a network firewall that serves as part of an organization's Internet border versus that serves as an internal local network firewall.
System maintenance
Configuration management is used to maintain an understanding of the status of complex assets in order to maintain the highest level of service for the lowest cost. In particular, it aims to ensure that operations are not disrupted as assets (or parts of assets) exceed the planned deadline or below the quality level.
In the military, this kind of activity is often classed as "mission preparedness", and seeks to determine what assets are available and for what type of mission; A classic example is whether the aircraft on board the aircraft is equipped with bombs for ground support or missiles for defense.
Operating System Configuration Management
Configuration management can be used to maintain the OS configuration file. Examples of systems include Ansible, Bcfg2, CFEngine, Chef, Otter, Wayang, Quattor, SaltStack, and Vagrant. Many of these systems utilize Infrastructure as a Code to define and maintain configurations.
A configuration maintenance theory is done by Mark Burgess, with practical implementation of today's computer systems in CFEngine software that can make real-time fixes and preventive maintenance.
Preventive maintenance
Understanding "as is" the state of the asset and its main component is an important element in preventive maintenance as used in maintenance, repair, and inspection as well as the company's asset management system.
Complex assets such as airplanes, ships, industrial machinery, etc. Depending on the many different components that can be used. The ease of service is often defined in terms of the number of uses that the component possesses because it is new, because it is installed, due to repair, the amount of use it has over its life and several other limiting factors. Understanding how near the end of their lives each of these components has become a major undertaking involving labor-intensive recording to the latest developments in software.
Predictive maintenance
Many types of components use electronic sensors to capture data that provides direct condition monitoring. This data is analyzed on a board or in a remote location by a computer to evaluate the current service and the more likely it is to use future algorithms that predict future potential failures based on previous instances of failure through field experience and modeling. This is the basis for "predictive maintenance".
The availability of accurate and timely data is essential so that CM can provide operational value and this lack can often be a limiting factor. Capturing and disseminating operations data to various support organizations becomes an industry of its own.
Consumers of this data have grown more and more complex with the growth of programs offered by original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). It is designed to offer the operator guaranteed availability and make the image more complicated with the carrier that manages the asset but the OEM takes responsibility to ensure its ease of service.
Standard
A number of standard support or including configuration management, including:
- ANSI/EIA-649-1998 National Consensus Standard for Configuration Management
- EIA-649-A National Consensus Standard for Configuration Management
- TechAmerica/ANSI EIA-649-B 2011 Configuration Management Standard
- ISO 10007: 2003 Quality management system - Guidelines for configuration management
- Federal Standard 1037C
- GEIA 836-2002 Standard for Configuration of Data Exchange and Interoperability
- IEEE 829 Standard for Software Test Documentation
- 828-2012 IEEE Standards for Configuration Management in System and Software Engineering . 2012. doi: 10.1109/IEEESTD.2012.6170935. ISBN: 978-0-7381-7232-3.
- MIL-STD-973 Configuration Management (canceled September 20, 2000)
- NATO STANAG 4427 Configuration Management in the Lifecycle Management System includes
- NATO ACMP 2000 Policy on Configuration Management
- NATO ACMP 2009 Guide on Configuration Management
- NATO ACMP 2100 Configuration Management Contract Requirements
- CMMI CMMI for Development, Version 1.2 Configuration Management
- CMII-100E CMII Standard for Enterprise Configuration Management
- List of Configuration & amp; Related Standards
- ITIL Technology Asset Management and Configuration
Guidelines
- 828-2012 Currently IEEE Standard is active which replaces/supports old ones.
- MIL-HDBK-61A Configuration Management Manual February 7, 2001
- 10007 Quality management - Guidelines for configuration management
- NATO ACMP-2009 - CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT GUIDE
- GEIA-HB-649 - Implementation Guide for Configuration Management
- ANSI/EIA-649-1998 National Consensus Standard for Configuration Management
- EIA-836 Consensus Standard for Configuration, Data Exchange, and Interoperability Management
- ANSI/EIA-632-1998 Processes for System Engineering
- MIL-HDBK-61A Configuration Management Guidelines
- MIL-STD-3046 (ARMY) Interim Standard on Configuration Management, March 6, 2013
- Defense Acquisition Handbook, CM element in 4.3.7 SE Processes, CM attribute in 5.1.7 Support lifecycle
- System Engineering Fundamentals, Chapter 10 Configuration Management
Construction
Recent configuration management has been applied to large construction projects that are often very complex and have a large number of details and changes that need to be documented. Construction agencies such as the Federal Highway Administration have used configuration management for their infrastructure projects. There is a construction-based configuration management tool that aims to document changes and RFI commands to ensure projects stay on schedule and within budget. These programs can also store information to assist in the maintenance and modification of the infrastructure when completed. One such application, ccsNet, was tested in a case study funded by the Federal Transportation Administration (FTA) where the effectiveness of configuration management was measured by comparing approximately 80% of complete construction of the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transit Agency (LACMTA) 1 and the second segment of the Red Line , a $ 5.3 billion railway construction project. This study yields results that demonstrate the benefits of using configuration management in these natural projects.
See also
- Change detection
- Automation of Granular Configuration
- Comparison of open source configuration management software
- Addiction
- List of software engineering topics
- Interchangeable sections
- Infrastructure as Code
- Automate continuous configuration
- Configure the system
- System management
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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