Artifact: Configuration Management Plan
| The Configuration Management (CM) Plan describes all Configuration and Change Control Management (CCM) activities you will perform during the course of the product or project lifecycle. It details the schedule of activities, the assigned responsibilities, and the required resources, including staff, tools, and computer facilities. | |
| Role: | Configuration Manager |
| Optionality/Occurrence: | Optional. Beginning of Elaboration phase. |
| Templates and Reports: | - Template: Configuration Management Plan |
| Examples: | - WC Configuration Management Plan - CREG Configuration Management Plan - Elaboration Phase |
| UML Representation: | Not applicable. |
| More Information: | |
| - Purpose - Timing - Responsibility - Tailoring |
Purpose
The purpose of the CM Plan is to define, or reference, the steps and activities that describe how Configuration and Change Control Management is performed in the development of a software product.
Timing
The CM Plan is written early in the Elaboration phase once funding has been approved for the project to proceed. We recommend you revisit it at the start of each phase and update it accordingly. The CM Plan needs to be archived so it’s available for post-deployment maintenance activities, particularly for guidance on where certain software assets might be stored.
Responsibility
The Role: Configuration Manager is responsible for the integrity of the CM Plan and for ensuring that it covers all of the following:
- activities to be performed
- schedule of activities
- assigned responsibilities
- required resources (staff, tools, environment, and infrastructure)
Tailoring
The Configuration Management Plan contains information that may be covered to a greater or lesser extent by other plans. The following approaches can be used to handle this potential overlap:
- Reference the content in another plan.
- Provide the overview in another plan and provide greater detail in this plan. References from these other plans to the Configuration Management Plan may be useful. This often works well on large projects with a separate organization responsible for configuration management.
- Tailor the document sections to cover only those areas that are not covered elsewhere.
The following is a mapping of Configuration Management Plan sections to artifacts that may contain complementary information:
| Configuration Management Plan Section | Complementary Artifact |
| Definitions, Acronyms, and Abbreviations | Glossary |
| Organization, Responsibilities, and Interfaces | Software Development Plan |
| Tools, Environment, and Infrastructure | Development Case, Software Development Plan (Infrastructure Plan) |
| Reports and Audits | Development Case , Measurement Plan, Quality Assurance Plan |
| Milestones | Software Development Plan, Iteration Plan |
| Training and Resources | Software Development Plan |
In addition, configuration management of requirements may be covered in full or in part by the Requirements Management Plan.