For example, source codes, property files, binaries, servers, and tools can all be configuration items for a software firm. The createtask ci action is used as a reference qualifier to the configuration item field of the incidentproblem tables. Software configuration management in software engineering. Configuration items itil documentation agiloft help. They are used in service management, change management, configuration management, incident management and a variety of other processes related to directing and controlling change. A configuration item, on the other hand, is subject to change control, which is baselinedand thats not true for every asset. Configuration management database cmdb computer weekly.
The following automation is configured for configuration items. This logical grouping provides ease of identification and controlled access. Changes may be required to modify or update any existing solution or to create a new solution for a problem. Scm practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines. Software engineering system configuration management whenever a software is build, there is always scope for improvement and those improvements brings changes in picture.
Without a clear definition of what qualifies as a ci, you will constantly struggle with deciding whether to put certain kinds of data into the cmdb. In itil terminology, configuration items ci are components of an infrastructure that currently is, or soon will be under configuration management. The item approval, which may be a written quality record or verbal, is a product of quality assurance. Product owners, who are responsible for maintaining and controlling the product, and sometimes give approval prior to. Configuration item ci a configuration item is an entity in a configuration management solution such as a cmdb. What configuration management is and where it originated from. A configuration item ci is any component of an it infrastructure, including a documentary item such as a service level agreement or a request for change, which is or is to be under the control of configuration management and therefore subject to formal change control.
Software configuration management scm is a supportingsoftware life cycle process that benefits project management, development and maintenance activities, quality assurance activities, as well as the customers and users of the end product. The configuration management system oversees the life of the cis through a combination of processes and tools by implementing and enabling the. However, in the world of software development, a configuration management process is also identified. Feb 27, 2019 software configuration management involves identifying configuration items for the software project, controlling these configuration items and changes to them, and recording and reporting status. Each configuration item is also linked to a parent catalog item, and it is possible to display all of the other configuration items for that catalog item in the configuration management system cms. Configuration control requires that both proposed and approved engineering changes be tracked and identified to the affected items. For more information about configuration item revisions, see management tasks for configuration data. Software configuration management scm is a software engineering discipline consisting of standard processes and techniques often used by organizations to manage the changes introduced to its software products. Configuration item management itil documentation agiloft help.
Good leaders in the tech space will want to know what it takes to implement it. This is related to the older workload automation category of software. Create configuration baselines configuration manager. Configuration items vary widely, but include anything related to your account that you want to track. Every configuration item must have a category and possibly subcategories that define what type of item it is. This revision of the standard expands the previous version to explain cm, including identifying and acquiring configuration items, controlling changes, reporting the status of configuration items, as well as software builds and release engineering. Software configuration item an overview sciencedirect. The configuration management system oversees the life of the cis through a. The thing we call a configuration item ci and assigning a configuration item identifier cii are part of configuration management identification.
Identify the associated artifacts to be contained in the programs technical baselines. Software configuration management is the process of identifying and defining the software configuration items in a system, controlling the release and change of these items throughout the system lifecycle, recording and reporting the status of configuration items and change requests, and verifying. Checklist configuration item ci record it process wiki. Software configuration management is defined as a process to systematically manage, organize, and control the changes in the documents, codes, and other entities during the software development life cycle. Developers and others involved in the project can use scm to keep track of artifacts, including source code, documentation, problems, changes requested, and changes made. Explaining configuration item ci, cmdb, cms and dml. Example configuration item hierarchy software configuration management is formally defined in ansiieee std 610. Software configuration management scm process and procedure. Configuration management is also used in software development and deployment, where it is called software or unified configuration management scm or ucm. Configuration items as a configuration management software. Scm helps in identifying individual elements and configurations, tracking changes, and version selection, control, and baselining.
Workload automation is still used by many organizations to handle eventbased scheduling and resource management across applications, databases, and. Configuration management interacts with quality assurance, as illustrated by the item approval process that accompanies a configuration item from production to storage. Indeed, managing configurations is one of the more challenging activities in. List configuration items each item that requires tracking should be identified. Software configuration management is the process of identifying and defining the software configuration items in a system, controlling the release and change of these items throughout the system lifecycle, recording and reporting the status of configuration items and change requests, and verifying the completeness and correctness of. These items must not be modified without a corresponding entry into the configuration management plan software, etc. Starting in version 1806, select if you want to always apply this baseline for comanaged clients. Determine when in the acquisition life cycle the government program office will assume initial and full configuration control of its technical baselines. Configuration management and engineering change control. Devops code software configuration items best read on. Checklist configuration item ci record from the itil process map v2.
The tailoring of this standard as it applies to this document is. A product data management system or engineering document control system is a logical approach to addressing this and other documentation needs. A configuration management system is basically just a set of tools like databases, files, etc. A toplevel configuration item is a ci used as the starting point for organizing and promoting a set of related configuration items.
Department of energy quality managers software quality. The purpose of the baseline is to have a static reference point for changes that occur once the baseline is crea. A software baseline includes the source code for each software configuration item and a software baseline document that provides a listing of the software and any other pertinent information such as developer, version, or software libraries. This document provides a practical guide for integrating software configuration management disciplines into the management of software engineering projects. Simply put, for software development, a baseline is a static i. A software baseline locks in a version, build number, or release number at a particular moment in time. In this series of cmsights posts from cmstat on configuration management best practices we will describe what are hardware configuration items ci or hwci and where they are used. Erp needs a robust capability to track and support engineering changes. Software configuration item an overview sciencedirect topics. Configuration management is focused on managing asset information that can be managed and controlled. Software engineering system configuration management. The cii when combined with the items part number, serial numberlot number, and the commercial and government entity cage code, definitively identifies a companys product from any other. The configuration management process seeks to identify and track individual configuration items cis, documenting functional capabilities, and interdependencies. Configuration items cis are the focal point of a cmdb.
Administrators, technicians, and software developers can use. Itil defines a ci as any component that needs to be managed in order to deliver an it service. It can have many child cis, such as an operating system, application software, and hardware components. Configuration items can overlap and exist at many levels of granularity. A ci is a software model that contains the attributes of the represented entity. What is the meaning of baseline in software configuration.
Its predecessor defined only the contents of a software configuration management plan. After that, this article zooms in on the use of software configuration items sci. What is configuration management and how does it work. System configuration management scm is an arrangement of exercises which controls change by recognizing the items for change, setting up connections between those things, makingcharacterizing instruments for overseeing diverse variants, controlling the changes being executed in the current framework, inspecting and revealingreporting on the. A configuration item ci is any service component, infrastructure element. The representations of these entities in the cmdb are configuration items cis. Ein ci kann jede vorstellbare itkomponente sein, beispielsweise software.
Software configuration management a aa ab ac aaa aab aca acb version 1 version 2 version 3 version 4 figure 2. A ci record within the cmdb contains the following data. It services are typically made up of a bunch of individual components things like servers, software and middleware, and unique configuration information. Configuration item ci cio wiki it management glossary. If something goes wrong, scm can determine what was. Lets start with configuration management, as that has a smaller scope. Oct 17, 2019 the design drawings are the configuration item, and its history is tracked because it has implications to potential project scope changes. It is abbreviated as the scm process in software engineering. Lets look at how configuration items cis are defined by some. The primary goal is to increase productivity with minimal mistakes.
Identify configuration items to be placed under government program office configuration management cm. Well start with configuration management system or cms. Itil checklist cms cmdb, enhanced with many additions itil process. Information about each ci is recorded in a configuration record within the configuration management system and is maintained throughout.
Each element in the it environment is an individual entity requiring accurate capture of its attributes. Software configuration management is the process of identifying and defining the software configuration items in a system, controlling the release and change of these items throughout the system lifecycle, recording and reporting the. What are hardware configuration items and how are they. It has relationships to the request tables, the knowledge management tables and to tables that provide the ci subtypes, catalog items, ci relationships, and so on. Simply put, a ci is an instance of an entity that is part of your environment and has configurable attributes specific to that instance. Configuration management cm is a governance and systems engineering process for ensuring consistency among physical and logical assets in an operational environment.
Software configuration management patterns alleviates software engineers most common concerns about software configuration managementperceived rigidity and an overemphasis on process. In software engineering, software configuration management scm or sw cm is the task of tracking and controlling changes in the software, part of the larger crossdisciplinary field of configuration management. Standard 8282005, standard for software configuration management plans, was used to guide the development of this plan. This article is about both these processes and the relationship between them. Most of the time the eco process is enormously more cumbersome than software development could use and still stay productive. Example characteristics of configuration items include author, document or file type, and programming language for software code files. Through the use of patterns, the authors show that a properly managed workflow can avert delays, morale problems, and cost overruns.
A toplevel configuration item is a ci used as the starting point for organizing and promoting a set of related configuration items an example of a toplevel ci is a computer system. Itil v3 describes configuration item ci as a subset of service asset that has a direct impact on service delivery and needs to be managed in order to deliver an it service in itil, configuration items cis are those service assets which are configurable and can be managed through change management. Identification this is the specification of all it components configuration items and their inclusion in a configuration management database cmdb control this is the management of each configuration item, specifying who is authorized to change it. Examples of cis include individual requirements documents, software, models, and plans. A configuration item, or ci, is anything uniquely identifiable that can be changed independently. The configurationmanagement system oversees the life of the cis through a combination of processes. Software configuration management encompasses the disciplines and techniques of initiating, evaluating and controlling change to software products during and after a software project standards approved by ansi ieee 828. A configuration item is an entity designated for configuration management, which may consist of multiple related work products that form a baseline. Cscis are selected based on tradeoffs among software function, size, host or target computers, developer, support concept, plans for reuse, criticality, interface considerations, need to be separately.
The goal of scm is to improve the speed of and quality by catching errors early and enabling quick fixes when they occur. The term configuration item ci refers to the fundamental structural unit of a configuration management system. Csci an aggregation of software that satisfies an end use function and is designated for separate configuration management by the acquirer. Dec 27, 2016 a configuration item, or ci, is anything uniquely identifiable that can be changed independently. A baseline is a configuration of a hardware, software, or system at a. In this context, it is very important to remember that all cis are service assets. Common configuration types include software, hardware, communications, location and documentation. Definition an aggregation of hardware, software, or both, that is designated for configuration management and treated as a single entity in the configuration management process. Jan 05, 2017 with the help of processes and tools, configuration management looks after the configuration items, especially with regards to change management, status accounting, identification and any audits. Software configuration management scm a practical guide. The challenge for configuration management solutions is that these software tools need the capability to provide and manage the released revision of the associated documentation at any point in time so the above comparable questions can be answered, and done so by users who may not be cm experts.
Examples of configuration items include software and applications, locations and offices, employees and customers, documentation, hardware and companies, and even your incidents, changes and customers. Ci a component of a system that is treated as a self contained unit for the purposes of identification and change control. Configuration management represents the one true source of the configuration items. In a new incident or problem, cis in which operational status is retired are filtered out from the configuration item list on the form. If something goes wrong, scm can determine what was changed and who changed it. This chapter is the updated version of the software configuration management scm generally accepted knowledge to be used as a consistent view of this software engineering topic worldwide. Software has its own need for configuration management see section 3. Software configuration items are placed under scm control at different times. Use configuration items and configuration management. Jul 01, 2014 software configuration management scm is a software engineering discipline consisting of standard processes and techniques often used by organizations to manage the changes introduced to its software products. The era is a largescale, comprehensive system designed to provide preservation of, and access to, electronic federal. The steps to performing configuration management are as follows.
This is the main table holding a record for each trackable configuration item. Cis are the basic units of configuration management. Software configuration management scm is a set of processes, policies, and tools that organize the development process. To remove a configuration item from the configuration baseline, select a configuration item, and then click remove. With the help of processes and tools, configuration management looks after the configuration items, especially with regards to change management, status accounting, identification and any audits. Selected items of system hardware or software or combinations of hardware and software, in which the government or acquiring activity has configuration management concern, are designated as configuration items cis. Configuration item configuration management systems. Configuration management software is designed to automate the deployment of applications in the data center and in the cloud. Eine cmdb configuration management databasekonfigurationsdatenbank enthalt. All configuration items cis are uniquely identified by ci registration codes and version numbers. Specify the important characteristics of each configuration item. A configuration item is anything that can be configured and that is absolutely necessary for the success of your project. Hardware configuration items in asx configuration management.