Definition

The purpose of the Configuration Management Strategy is to keep an up to date record of all the project’s management and specialist products.

The objective of the strategy is to:

• Describe how and where the project’s products will be stored;
• Identify what storage and retrieval security will be put in place;
• Identify how the products and the various versions and variants of these will be identified including a naming convention;
• Describe how changes to products will be controlled.

Benefits

It helps ensure that your project runs as smoothly as possible by making it easy for the project manager and others involved with the project to keep track of what happens to all of the products. It might not achieve star status like a killer app or website, but it is essential to project success and is part of quality control.

Download Configuration Management Strategy Example

A few years ago I was asked by a client to take over the project management of a website being developed by another of their suppliers, a small digital development agency. This agency had been paid up front for what was quite a complex site and eagerly set to work. Near the completion of the project they released a build for the client to test and approve. The client logged onto the UAT site and quickly fed back that the site functionality wasn’t at all what they expected and “while you’re fixing that can we have some small changes”? What followed was a barrage of confusing change requests which added more and more functionality to the site. By the time I became involved the client was at the end of their tether and the agency had spent twice as much of their fee on development work.

Had the agency scoped out the requirements for the site and recorded them in a scope document before the commencement of a project then many of their troubles would never have happened. Continue reading →