In software project management, there are actually several different meanings for the term change management. Interface between requirements development and all. Instead of sweating the differences between assets and configuration items, the beneficial thing is to understand how the different management perspectives contribute towards good itsm practices. Stefan fichtinger, urte pautz requirements management. Configuration management to manage requirements, to manage source code, test cases and documentation. Change and configuration management of requirements. There is also an inbetween layer of cm that, i would argue, rightly. Configuration management is everything that you need to manage in terms of a project. Questions regarding the differences between configuration management. There are two components to the configuration management system. Ill use configuration management to manage requirements and configuration management to manage source code, test cases, and documentation. What is the difference between configuration management. As can be seen, at the core of both asset and configuration management is the configuration management database or cmdb.
I get a number of questions about the differences between a configuration management system and a change management system. Jul 29, 2017 configuration control and change control are often used interchangeably. There is a difference between these two terms when it comes to it services. Introduction to change management and sdlc steve owyoung doug mohrland. Both are subsets of the overall configuration management system. One of the ways the modern service desk has connected incident management, problem, change, and release management, and an extensive service catalog to its employees is through the configuration management database cmdb and it asset management. 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.
Software engineering system configuration management. All team members should discuss what a successful change looks like and assign change management roles. There are two meanings for the project management process of configuration management. So one is much more complete and covers more completely the development lifecycle, while being generic. Software configuration management in software engineering. In conjunction with change control management, there is configuration management. The system enables reconciliation between clients state and the central configuration specification. With a good configuration management system, there should be a complete picture of what changed, the reason for the change and who performed it. In one context, change management refers to managing changes to artifacts, such as code changes or documentation changes. Isnt change management and configuration management the.
Engage with website visitors and product users for sales and customer success. Configuration management and change management stand side by side. The terms assets and configuration items are often confused with one another. Configuration management vs change management whos in. Change and configuration management 5 change and configuration management software automates a subset of it software asset management, providing teams the control needed to ensure compliance through automated patching, license management, policy enforcement, thereby reducing costs. Configuration management and version control automation. The main difference between the change management and configuration. Patch management includes the planning, acquiring, testing and installing of changes to a software. Difference between version control and configuration. It is important not to confuse configuration management with change management. The big 3 keys to performance engineering success axelos. Cmdb is a component of asset and configuration management.
May 28, 2010 in software project management, there are actually several different meanings for the term change management. Software configuration management scm is a software engineering discipline consisting of standard processes and techniques often used by organizations to. The goal of this subsystem is to manage fundamental project constraints of scope, time, cost and quality. Configuration management covers the entire process that includes not only software but hardware, tests, documentation, connection pool settings, other configuration files and more. However, they are distinct activities with different focus, and one is not a substitute for other. Jun 23, 2015 configuration management provides a managed database cmdb for the change logs, rfcs, definitive software library dsl, definitive hardware store dhs, release package, and all cis. The next generation series, joe farah recently noticed an increasing level of discussion on cm communities discussing software configuration management scm versus hardware configuration management hcm. Every release is comprised of a single change or package of changes. Team fundation server or rtc rational team concert are. Dec 18, 2018 the project manager at your new partner organization should be prepared to have a detailed discussion around project overview, requirements and associated timingmilestones, also known as the project baseline. Even if we decide not to use a formal change control process, it would be helpful to know who made a change and why after the fact, and so requirements change. This question arises because most project managers have heard about a change management system, and change control, but most of them havent seen, heard or used a configuration management system. The main difference between the change management and configuration management systems is that change management deals with process, plans, and baselines, while configuration management deals with product specifications.
Configuration control and change control similar yet. Change management is the process of making changes to the it infrastructure in a standardized and systematic manner. While there is significant overlap between the management of these two, clarity can ultimately lead to fullvalue realization for your organization. May 23, 2012 evolvens software asaservice solution enables companies to dramatically increase the stability of their it environments, reduce the risk of production outages, lower operating costs, and cut. The major difference between cmdb and asset management is that cmdb contains assets as configuration items cis, whereas, assets, by themselves, are standalone items that have intrinsic financial value to an organization thats the long and short of it. Scm generally means software configuration management, which include cmrm change management up to release management, including versioning. Software to manage the configuration of a large number of computers using a central configuration model and the clientserver paradigm. Change management is concerned with changes made to an items. Evolvens software asaservice solution enables companies to dramatically increase the stability of their it environments, reduce the risk of production outages, lower operating costs, and cut. Most of the time the eco process is enormously more cumbersome than software development could use and still stay productive. Software configuration management is often referenced in a software engineering context, a simple definition is given by roger pressman in software engineering. Configuration management vs change management pm study circle.
A change management plan leads the project team in terms of making any kind of change on the project, especially the ones that can affect the scope, schedule baseline. Changes can include replacing or upgrading the capacity of hardware, upgrading to a new version or rolling back to an old version of software, or switching to new vendors of iaas and paas solution. Change management leads many kinds of changes that can impact on the baseline, whereas configuration management leads the changes which are specific to the product configuration. Oct 21, 2015 diff between configuration and change management configuration management change control management configuration management plan only guides you in making changes which are specific to the product configuration change management plan is a generic plan that guides the project manager in terms of making any kind of change on the project. If you are already familiar with itil, go ahead and skip the next section. Difference between devops and software configuration management. The configuration management system is a subsystem of overall project management. It can be used for the process of identifying, tracking, and managing of all the physical assets of a project. Configuration management vs change management pm study. Understand the basics of configuration and change management.
Definition what does software configuration management scm mean. It is abbreviated as the scm process in software engineering. What does change management mean in software development. 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. While these may seem like two different processes, both are actually components of the same process as defined in itilv3 as service asset and configuration management. It opens up the opportunity for change control through documentation, accountability and the regular auditing of. While reading the scope management chapter in pmbok6, it is mentioned on page 7 that requirement management plans one of the output contains the information about configuration management such as how changes will be analyzed, how impacts will be analyzed,how they will be tracked. If something goes wrong, scm can determine what was changed and who changed it. The figure here depicts this level of traceability from both a top down and a bottom up view. One clearly needs to understand the relation between the. The starkest differences between change management and release management stem from the fact that, while the former resides on the strategic level, the latter resides on the operational level. Questions regarding the differences between configuration management cm and change management also cm arise so often that we decided to address it in a cmsights post. Itil change management change management process flow. A brief introduction to configuration and change management.
While reading the scope management chapter in pmbok6, it is mentioned on page 7 that requirement management plans one of the output contains the information about configuration management such as how changes will be analyzed, how impacts will be analyzed,how they will be. Difference between devops and software configuration. Difference between configuration management and change. The link between change management and release management. Learn about configuration management cm, a continuous process of recording and maintaining consistent and reliable records pertaining to an organizations hardware and software composition.
Unfortunately, quality management systems are rarely standard due to unique productservice, regulatory compliance, and business nuances. It is an environment needed to apply change management processes to admin all changes related to the organization project. If change management is a governance process, release management is an action process. Why its wrong to compare cmdb and asset management. In the 1970s, the american government developed a number of military standards, which included configuration management. Configuration management, as we know it today, started in the late 1960s. Setup a cloudbased call center across 40 countries within minutes. On the other hand, software configuration management is a far more established term within the profession, and derives from the non software specific term configuration management. Though not independent, one cannot be considered a subset of the other. Asset management and configuration management are in fact two separate concepts that should not be interchangeable although they are complementary.
As per definition, version control ensures that any changes in the deliverables is documented and maintained whereas configuration management system is a process that ensures that any path leading to the production of deliverables is achieved and. Feb 06, 2019 as per definition, version control ensures that any changes in the deliverables is documented and maintained whereas configuration management system is a process that ensures that any path leading to the production of deliverables is achieved and. What is the real difference between software configuration. Configuration management tools are used to repeatably and consistently manage the configuration of systems and the services that they provide entirely through code. Configuration management includes, but is not limited to, version control.
When evaluating a software platform, consider the differences between configuration and customization for enterprise qms software. A fivestep model for configuration management techrepublic. Configuration management is considered a unicorn of service management. Both are related activities in the sense that they are concerned with management of change. Configuration control and change control are often used interchangeably. Separate the roles of change manager and release manager. Change control is clearly delimited from other activities in configuration management, though all activities may be implemented in the same tool in an automated system. Also, change management can cause some confusion because it can refer to either organizational change management or it services change management. Configuration management and change management solutions. The primary goal is to increase productivity with minimal mistakes.
Configuration management in itil one commonly asked question about itil is the difference between change management and configuration management. Configuration management and change management projectcubicle. Configuration management therefore refers to managing a relative arrangement of parts or elements. It also discusses the difference between configuration management vs. Aug 22, 2019 change managemt is, by definition, a component of configuration management. This includes software, hardware, tests, documentation, release management, and more. Why configuration management and provisioning are different.
How is configuration management different than change. Consequently, change and configuration management of requirements is still an important element of agile projects and the use of software tools to help with it can be greatly beneficial. Integrity management software 11 integrity management control change management leading practices 5 6 7 software development life cycle reads files or directories to monitor critical network configuration, data files, customer database files, documents and. It works with the support of change management to builds, tests and deploy new or updated services into the live. Configuration management requires a fine balance between managing configuration information. 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. The term devops is a relatively new one, popularized by the devopsdays ghent 2009 conference and subsequent devopsdays events. Project managers interested in utilizing configuration management know that it is about identifying and establishing a plan before change is needed. Jul 18, 20 george will clarify the difference between asset management and configuration management. To find out the differences lets look at what these types of management actually do first. Configuration management and version control automation world. Under the authority of change, release builds, tests and releases new or updated services into the production environment.
So, while change management is more of a gatekeeper, or an authorization processsince one of its goals is to protect the production environment. It identifies every end user component and tracks every proposed and approved change to it from day one of the project to the day the project ends. Today, the it department can track any asset or configuration item ci, all of its relevant. Ensuring that whatever you have under configuration management is changed only when and as expected is a key to the success of managing your configuration. This can also be referred to as configuration management. List of top change and configuration management software 2020. Software update gone awry a new software update is released into production to migrate to tls 1. The first software configuration management was a manual operation. The 4 phases of an effective change management plan.
Dec 11, 2019 the main difference between the change management and configuration management systems is that change management deals with process, plans, and baselines, while configuration management deals with product specifications. Software has its own need for configuration management see section 3. Is configuration management part of change management or vice versa. With the advances in language and complexity, software engineering, involving configuration management and other methods, became a major concern due to issues like schedule, budget, and quality. Whether change control is considered a configuration management activity may differ from company to company. Its not clear what the difference is between a change and a release the line between a major change and a release is blurred its not clear when to work with release management as opposed to change management change management exists but release is seen as a duplication of effort continual issues between project and. Remember that there are many similarities between hardware and software, but there are certain differences that significantly impact your ability to develop and manage. It requires you to send your team to upgrade the software, hardware, and get the. New agile project management software for development teams. What is the difference between configuration management and. Configuration, to form from or after, derives from the latin com, meaning with or together, and figurare, to form.
Scm practices include revision control and the establishment of baselines. The major difference between cmdb and asset management is that cmdb contains assets as configuration items cis, whereas, assets, by themselves, are standalone items that have intrinsic financial value to an organization. Configuration management and change management solutions from. Software change, configuration and release management. Version control is part of configuration management. Apr 27, 2020 the below examples further illustrate the difference between change management and configuration management and how the two processes intersect. Diff between configuration and change management configuration management change control management configuration management plan only guides you in making changes which are specific to the product configuration change management plan is a generic plan that guides the project manager in terms of making any kind of change on the project.
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