Talk:Configuration management

message: These seem to be all version control systems. Are there any exceptions? If they are all version control tools, we should say so; if not we should separate them out. 
Actually it should all be moved to List of revision control software and integrated there. m.e. 2 July 2005 09:07 (UTC)
No !  Comfiguration management requires version control int he same way that an Air traffic management system manages aircraft in flight.
Paras 4 and 5 should go thought as these are specific applications of CM.
The theory behind version control is not that dissimilar to configuration management - however, unlike version control, in configuration management the configuration can be constantly changing where as a version is... a version - an example of this might be DNS servers - whose configuration may change repeatedly however the version of the DNS server in use remains the same.  Configuration is a collection of child items whose parent is often a version of something.  It's an incestuous relationship but they're not the same thing, in my opinion.  Where configuration management seems to be adding real value is in version discovery and management of those objects but not their ancestors, which is better served by version control.  Another musing is based on dependencies and understanding them as part of a configuration - this is not addressed by version control.
===Practical Example===
Consider a fleet of locomotives (or aircraft or school computers).  At any time there will be at least one "approved" set of design and safety features that this fleet provides.  Now, in the perfect world, all the locos will identical and at this approved stage. 
In reality, you'll have aquired your locos over a period of time and they won't have been physically identical then. Or now, despite "upgrades" to bring the old ones up-to-date.  Futher, not all of your fleet will be up-to-date, as some of your required modifications can only be done at a major overhaul.  And some of the fleet will have "field fixes" for problems that have arisen.  Some others are parked because their problems have no "patches" that allow use.  Or are still waiting a safety critical fix.
Now, show me how your revision control software can do status reporting for this mess?  Ie. which locos meet current requirements (ie. are "fit for use")?   How many of them will be upgraded in time to comply with the safety regs changes that come into force next month?
This is why software, hardware and documents have both "version numbers" and "issue numbers" (change labels as needed).  One is introspective and tracks development changes.  The other faces outwards and is used for configuration management.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thoglette (talk • contribs) 07:17, 4 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Product list

message: Consider a fleet of locomotives (or aircraft or school computers).  At any time there will be at least one "approved" set of design and safety features that this fleet provides.  Now, in the perfect world, all the locos will identical and at this approved stage. 
In reality, you'll have aquired your locos over a period of time and they won't have been physically identical then. Or now, despite "upgrades" to bring the old ones up-to-date.  Futher, not all of your fleet will be up-to-date, as some of your required modifications can only be done at a major overhaul.  And some of the fleet will have "field fixes" for problems that have arisen.  Some others are parked because their problems have no "patches" that allow use.  Or are still waiting a safety critical fix.
Now, show me how your revision control software can do status reporting for this mess?  Ie. which locos meet current requirements (ie. are "fit for use")?   How many of them will be upgraded in time to comply with the safety regs changes that come into force next month?
This is why software, hardware and documents have both "version numbers" and "issue numbers" (change labels as needed).  One is introspective and tracks development changes.  The other faces outwards and is used for configuration management.  —Preceding unsigned comment added by Thoglette (talk • contribs) 07:17, 4 November 2008 (UTC)
thread_title: Practical Example

message: the link to CMBoK seems to point to an empty page. I found the actual contents at http://www.cmcrossroads.com/cgi-bin/cmwiki/view/CM/CMBoK 195.41.27.126 09:39, 24 June 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  A broken link 

message: This entry (as stated at the start) is limited to IT Configuration Management.
This is not the criticism of the entry, but I would have liked to see more. Shouldn't someone (who knows much more than me, hopefully) add information about general product CM? This is a really big deal in all manufacturing organisations now, and there is a deal of information on it.
ISO does a great deal of CM standardization. I've added the ISO 10007 under the standards list. Given time, I would like to expand on this topic as well. There also is a large selection of documentations and guidelines from DoD, which may help serve as references for general military systems design. I will link those as soon as I can.
--Dchem 18:48, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Limited to Software 

message: I liked the material posted herein, but I too would like to see information on CM as it pertains to general business.  While we have SCM and facilities/engineering CM programs in place, how about CM on an enterprise wide scale that looks at things like staffing, business systems, and delivery of non-computer soft goods and services?  Does that experience set exist?
What you are talking about with respect to Business practices is a subset of Quality Systems or quality assurance. Society of Automotive Engineers has AS9000 which serves as a baseline for Business Management System which focuses on Quality Systems for aerospace application, and hense configuration management.--Dchem 18:51, 16 January 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  CM as an enterprise wide initiative 

message: I don't see why this is needed in the entry.  If we already have an "external links" section at the end, isn't the "sites" section just roughly a short directory list of websites that have to do with CM... which is kinda sorta not really wanted for Wikipedia entries?  I'm going to delete the section.  Please, if you feel as though the section is a valuable asset to the entry, leave a comment - let's have an open discussion here.--Christian B 16:01, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: Actually, I'm not going to delete it - this whole entry, at least to me, seems to be in need of a rewrite.  Right now it's so heavily slanted towards just listing companies / sites that have to do with CM - that isn't needed in a Wikipedia entry.  Any thoughts?--Christian B 16:03, 12 July 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I'd concur that the links section needs an overhaul. The plethora of links scares me, and being a person who is not familiar with the subject I cannot check whether all/any/some of them should be there or not. --Ouro (blah blah) 20:25, 26 September 2007 (UTC)
replies: text: I tried to add the Configuration Management Resource Guide to the list of external links, but Wikipedia kept taking it down. I feel it is a relevant link for the site since it provides people interested in CM with pages upon pages of CM white papers, tool vendors, articles, links, lists all of the CM and related standards, and more. Check it out here: http://cmpic.com/cmresourceguide.htm and add it to the site if you think it is beneficial.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Keebrook (talk • contribs) 19:31, 31 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: If your page menu includes entries like "Fees" and "Testimonials" you are likely to see Wiki editors pulling it off the page pretty regularly. You may not think it's linkspam, but if the site exists to sell services it doesn't belong here.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 214.4.238.180 (talk) 16:15, 2 June 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sites for Configuration Management section 

message: I've proposed that Hardware configuration management be merged into this article. 
I don't think we need to have separate pages for hardware and software until the main article on the general discipline of configuration management gets too big.
(As it is, most of the information on the other page is duplicative anyway.) ComputerGeezer (talk) 19:33, 3 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: Merge completed.  The added text could still use some work wikifying and cleaning up, but at least it's now integrated into the topic. ComputerGeezer (talk) 16:36, 20 August 2008 (UTC)

text: I think the merger hasn't been fully resolved as yet.  The HCM has been changed to a redirect, but left undone seems what the generic CM is vice specifics, whether this contains material that was at Hardware configuration management, and what to do with separate Software configuration management ... Markbassett (talk) 13:55, 16 August 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Merge from "Hardware configuration management" 

message: I trimmed the introduction of Configuration management in the Systems engineering article and removed the following text:
:CM is divided into five major functional areas (although older documents and standards such as MIL-STD-973 only formally speak of four): Configuration Identification (including selection of Configuration Items (CIs), their nomenclatures, and the identification of baselines), Configuration Control (including change management of the baselines and CIs, the approvals needed for change and distribution of changes to affected parties), Configuration Status Accounting (providing situational awareness of the status of controlled baselines and changes and their traceability to items that are in production or fielded), Configuration Audit (formal review of the objective functional and physical proof from testing and documentation) and the area found in more recent standards such as ANSI/EIA-649, Configuration Planning (implementation planning for the conduct of CM).  In other industries such as the commercial High Tech industry or Information Technology industry CM is a growing discipline (much like Systems Engineering), although still strongly associated with Change Management rather than as the broad core business process described above.
''
Maybe some of this should be integrated in this article -- Marcel Douwe Dekker (talk) 11:04, 21 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Text in Systems engineering article trimmed 

message: A box has appeared on the Aba page saying that it is an orphan.
Would it be appropriate to link from this CM page in some way to the Aba page?
Dwlegg (talk) 13:02, 19 August 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Configuration Management Tools 

message: I recreated the diagram in SVG. Can someone talk to me offline about how to upload it?
Ghostisma (talk) 20:19, 9 April 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Recreated diagram as an SVG... 

message: The section on hardware configuration management seems lifted wholesale from this book; alternatively, the book seems to have copied the wikipedia page word-for-word.  Not sure which way things went, but I'm going to blank the section for now until I can rewrite it.  WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules:simple/complex 20:37, 30 January 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: The material significantly pre-dates the publication of that book; I don't think there's much question of which way the copyvio went.  A re-write with actual sources would rock, though... :) Kuru (talk) 00:51, 31 January 2012 (UTC)
replies: text: Ugh, that means I can't use it (well, I could per RS, but intellectually I'm not inclined to).  This is very far from my area of expertise, but if you can dump some sources on me, I can probably hammer it into something reasonable.  I need to brush up on the area and I don't even know what search terms to use.  WLU (t) (c) Wikipedia's rules:simple/complex 16:21, 31 January 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Copyright violation 

message: It may seem trivial, but what is a "configuration"? It's not yet defined in this article. I guess it is a characteristic of a system (whether that is a car or a bolt). What is included in this characterization, and what is not? For example, if a car has a flat tire, does this change its configuration?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Robert2s (talk • contribs) 19:14, 31 May 2014 (UTC)
thread_title:  Configuration 

message: The diagram filename has configuration misspelled in it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Configuration_management#/media/File:ConfiurationActivityModel.png
It's missing the letter "g".
AlanR (talk) 12:46, 23 October 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Nitpick on diagram name 

message: I'm noting that there is a larger set of activities than reflected here.  The CM must deliver the activities shown from standards (identification, control, accounting, evaluation) but to do so will require more to setup, execute, and tend the CM.  For example, the CM Manager redirects here, and they provide more than the CM end results, they also provide or oversee the following
* CI audits and reviews
* CM activity monitoring and process improvement
* Development of CI releases
* Establishment of CM and product or master libraries
* Evaluation of CM changes
* Generation of reports
* Identification of CI baselines
* Identification of CM training requirements
* Identification of CM products or systems
* Incorporation of changes into baselines
* Collection and analysis of metrics
* Selection of CM data management and reporting systems
Markbassett (talk) 15:56, 27 May 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Configuration Manager - the background items 

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thread_title:  External links modified 

message: This article could be improved, in the "History" section, by the addition of references to the United States Code of Federal Regulations (US CFR), as well as the U.S. DoD directives and instructions (issuances?) on "Configuration Management" and its implementation guidance.
Former 32 CFR 195, Configuration Management; (Federal Register 32 FR 13020, September 14, 1968 refers);
Former 32 CFR 195a, Configuration Management Implementation Guidance; (44 FR 31178). 
Former DoD Directive 5010.19, Configuration Management, July 17, 1968;
Former DoD Instruction 5010.21, Configuration Management Implementation Guidance, Aug 6, 1968.
By comparison, DoD-Std-480 was originally dated October 30, 1968.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by 144.183.224.2 (talk) 21:00, 7 December 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  U.S. Code of Federal Regulations 

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