8.1 Item Approval

Item approval is evidence that items satisfy the criteria for placing under configuration management. This is not necessarily final approval of the object as being ready for release to, say, a customer, but rather the approval needed before the object is placed under configuration management. Another purpose may be to communicate metadata to the person who is to register metadata for the configuration item, such as the librarian, if these metadata are not communicated otherwise .

Quality Approval

Item approval forms an interface between configuration management and quality assurance. Item approval is (or should be) a result of quality assurance activities for an item, intended for use by the person responsible for configuration management or the librarian in connection with placing the item under configuration management. The relationship is shown in Figure 8-1.

Figure 8-1. Item Approval in Context

Medium

An item approval will typically be a form; either paper based or electronic. An electronic item approval may be communicated as e-mail. In some cases, however, it may be a paper-based original of the configuration item, signed by the people involved and kept in a controlled physical library.

Content

An item approval should contain these data elements:

• Configuration item concerned

• Dated signatures (electronic or other) by the producer, the person responsible, and the approver

• Condition(s) for approval

• Related metadata

Configuration Item

The configuration item to which the approval applies must be indicated by full unique identification. In some cases, this identification, or parts of it, may be generated only in connection with placement in storage. If so, this must be apparent from the item approval.

Signatures

Those involved in production and approval of the item should sign the item approval. Signatures may be regarded as too formal, but some means of registration of authorization of approval should be considered . Electronic approvals and signatures may be desirable, but if this possibility doesn't exist, item approval must be paper based.

Condition(s) for Approval

Conditions of item approval depend totally on circumstances. Factors influencing the conditions are the type of configuration item, the quality assurance activities needed, and the item's status. To give some examples: the conditions for approving a draft document may be that the nearest superiors of the author have reviewed it and handed in a review report to quality assurance, and, moreover, that the author has revised the document in accordance with the review report. The conditions of approving source code may be that a documented and reported module test has been carried through with an achieved minimum coverage and that the code does not contain any known errors.

Metadata

Each company must consider how metadata not registered under identification can be communicated by the producer in connection with placement in storage. Such data elements may with advantage be registered on an item approval. This may be information on what the configuration item has been produced with or exactly which parts a delivery consists of.

Examples

This section contains two examples of item approvals: one for a configuration management system with a low degree of formalism and one for a high degree of formalism. In systems of the lowest formality , a simple library tool (for version control or the like) may provide item approval automatically in a transaction log, as a record of insertion in the controlled library.

Low Degree of Formalism

Figure 8-2 shows e-mail used as approval registration. The recipient is a central account associated with the system (here System1). All project members may access the account, and e- mails may be sorted by sender, date, or subject to produce various overviews of the information. Entering additional information in the text field may be required, as appropriate.

Figure 8-2. Mail Message Used as Approval Registration

High Degree of Formalism

Figure 8-3 shows a unit approval form that follows each unit during its life cycle in a large, high-formality project. It may be used for signatures to document a unit's progress through its life cycle. At the same time, it may serve as a checklist for various approvals in the life cycle.

Figure 8-3. Unit Approval FormHigh Degree of Formalism