There's no getting around it: configuration management is hard workyou have to do what you have to do. It starts out gently, and more and more is added as the project progressesbut it all has to hang together.
This part discusses how configuration management is actually performed once decisions have been made about what to place under configuration management, and when and how. The decision-making aspects are discussed in Chapters 5 and 6. When these decisions have been made, all you have to do is get on with it.
Most systems do, however, have a fair amount of built-in complexity. In configuration management, it's rarely enough to look at an item from one angle. Figure IV-1 illustrates this. When considering how to perform configuration management for an item, all the aspects shown in the figure must be taken into consideration: item type, project type, product type, special conditions, and degree of formalism required. Consequently, it's not enough to look under one heading in this book for inspirationyou have to identify all aspects of the case and read all relevant sections.
Figure IV-1. Configuration Management Complexity for One Item
