ABSTRACT
Interviews and online discussions have culminated in a very interesting finding. The closer the industries were to the commodity market, the better was their overall grasp of the full spectrum of managing configurations and the applicability of Configuration Management (CM) to their product. CM implementation at each product level relies on sound CM implementation of the items sourced from the level below. What makes CM implementation particularly challenging on multiple build end items is CM of processes and acceptance criteria to ensure the suitability of all products sold. Organizational decoupling of CM implementation from the program/product development team results in muddled change control. When coupled with a growing reluctance to include CM implementation throughout all phases of the program life cycle, a lack of design continuity results. CM implementation activities need to encompass tracking the genesis of requirements as well as closure artifacts.
