Configuration Management and Prince2 Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE2 – Configuration Management Within the context of project Management, the purpose of configuration management is to identify, track and protect the projects products. Configuration Management may be thought of as asset or product control. It is a discipline that gives precise control over the project’s products by allowing management to: Specify the versions of products in use and in existence and hold information on: their status (e.g. in live use, archived, ready for quality checking) who owns each product (the individual with prime responsibility for it) The relationships between products Maintain up-to-date records containing these pieces of information. Control changes to the products by ensuring that changes are made only with the agreement of appropriately named authorities. Audit the records to ensure that they contain the authorized products and only these products. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE2 – Configuration Management Plays a major part in the quality control of the project. Without it, managers have little or no control over the products being produced e.g. what their status is, where they are, what version it is. Configuration Management contributes to the economic provision of quality products: By making the management of changes and upgrades to a product cheaper and less error prone. By helping to identify products that may be affected by problems in related products. By checking which versions of products the user is using or is connected to, whether products in use are authorized, whether products have been affected by changes and which other related products might be the cause of the problems. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE2 – Configuration Management Configuration Management is not optional! ! If more than one version has been created, then configuration management is being performed. It is just a question of how formally it needs to be done. Configuration Management for management products is of equal importance to configuration management for specialist products. E.g a Stage Plan will be updated at many times during a stage. Each update will be anew version. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE 2 - Baseline A baseline is a snapshot of a product and any component products, frozen at a point in time for a particular purpose. It also records a change in product status when the product passes to the configuration library after successful completion of quality control. This changes its status and ‘freezes’ the content. It can now be used as a firm basis from the development of any later product. If the product is changed at a later date, the baseline version stays unchanged. A new version number must be allocated, a copy of the product is issued bearing this new version number and all the facts are noted in the configuration management records. When this amended version is finally finished, and has been through quality checking, it is passed into the library and a new baseline established for that version. Old baseline versions are never discarded. The configuration management method must always permit the recreation of any version of the released product. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE 2 - Release A release is a complete and consistent set of products that forms a fixed reference point in the development of the end outcome. Each product in the release must have been baselined so that it is clear which version of the various parts should be included. The most obvious release is the final outcome to be handed over at the end of the project. It is normal to provide intermediate releases to provide a firm, agreed foundation for later work, preferably a natural breakpoints in the development cycle. This release can be considered as a ‘bill of materials’ – a list of products that make up that release, showing each product’s version number and baseline date. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE2 – Managing the configuration Consists of 5 basic functions: Planning Identification Control Status accounting Verification Planning: deciding what level of configuration management will be required by the project and planning how this level is to be achieved. Identification: specifying and identifying all components of the final product. Control: the ability and baseline products and then to make changes only with the agreement of appropriate named authorities. Once a product has been approved, the motto is’ nothing moves, nothing changes without authorization’ Status accounting: the recording and reporting of all current and historical data concerning each product. Verification: a series of reviews and configurations audits to ensure that the actual status of all products matches the authorized state of products as registered in the configuration management records. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE2 – Configuration Librarian Configuration Management gives the project management team precise control over the project’s assets. The title given to the role that operates the configuration management method is Configuration Librarian. Where a project is part of a program, it may be sensible to perform the function at program level, since products will probably be shared between projects within the program and inter-project product transfers may occur during the life of the project. It is essential that each projects configuration management meets the requirements of the program in addition to the projects internal needs. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE2 – Configuration Management Plan The configuration management plan forms part of the Project Quality Plan. It defines: How and where the products will be stored What filing and retrieval security there will be How the products and the various versions of these will be identified Where responsibilities for configuration management lie. A full description of the Suggested Contents of the Configuration Management Plan is available in a separate document in this toolkit. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE2 – Configuration Identification Each product (and each version of a product) required a unique identifier. As a minimum, the coding scheme should identify: The project in which the product is created Type of product e.g. hardware, document etc Product title Latest version number. According to the type of product, there may be other parts of the unique key, such a variant (for example, what language version). A description of the typical information that needs to be held for a Configuration Item Record is available in a separate document in this toolkit. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008

PRINCE 2 – Configuration Audits These audits that actual products against the information held about them in the configuration management records, looking for discrepancies e.g. difference in version numbers Incorrect status Stated person has the item out for change. The audits also check that the configuration management process is being done to a standard. Such audits are normally carried out at the end of each stage. Normally someone with Project Assurance responsibility is responsible for configuration audits, with help from the Configuration Librarian. If the Project Board is carrying out its own Project Assurance, the Project Manager may appoint someone else to carry out the audit. Copyright: The Art of Service 2008