Chapter 23. Planning Configuration Managementup to Capability Level 2

According to CMMI, an organization may reach capability level 2 in configuration management when configuration management for all projects is institutionalized as a managed process. Two key characteristics of a managed process are that it is planned and that products produced are themselves placed under configuration management.

Even if CMMI or other maturity models didn't promote planning, a plan is a starting point for good configuration management. It deepens the understanding of the task and provides the basis for performing configuration management. It's much cheaper to think everything through on paper rather than while trying to perform it. All configuration management activities must be described in the plan. This chapter offers suggestions for the contents of such a plan, which doesn't need to be an independent documentit may be included as a chapter in the overall project plan.

Just as with project planning, it's advisable to have a detailed configuration management plan only for the foreseeable futuretypically for the next activity in the project's life cycle. Later activities should be planned at a higher level and details provided in a later version of the plantypically, just before the project enters the later activity.