A frequent question we hear from aerospace and defense industry executives is how can they perform a Configuration Management Assessment of the performance of their organizations, programs, and products with regard to the practice of configuration management.
CMstat has learned over our several decades that the underlying concern of managers, which triggers this question, is not their professional interest in or curiosity about configuration management, even though we might wish that was true!
Instead, it’s more often like “how much exposure and risk – technical, financial, regulatory, legal, and reputation – do we have if something goes wrong or fails?”
Those of us with long business careers know that Risk of Failure (ROF) is as powerful a motivator as Return on Investment (ROI), even if financial analysts have not come up with a metric to quantify the former as they have the latter.
Nevertheless, hearing the question reveals management, at some level, understands that oversight of the CM function is not a domain to be relegated to a few specialists locked away in the back office. Instead, it is an enterprise quality management function in which program and product executives have a responsibility to provide oversight and governance.
We discussed the relationship of configuration management to quality management in the CMsights post Why Configuration Management is Quality Management.
In working with our customers we have learned to respond to their configuration management assessment question in several ways. In this CMsights post we will summarize a few of the approaches used and will conclude with a checklist of specific discovery questions useful in performing a configuration management assessment.
For Program and Project Managers in aerospace and defense we have published a “Primer on Configuration Management which may be downloaded at HERE.
One of the most important items covered in the primer has to do with the importance of CM Plans. More specifically, having a plan to use PDM software or CM tools is not the same as having a CM Plan! To help managers understand the importance of a CM Plan, and what should go into one, we published this article Configuration Management Plan Review.
Another topic that often confuses managers is the difference between change control and configuration management. We recommend this discussion on How Configuration Management is Different from Change Control.
Still, some may erroneously think that if their organization has change management under control, then they must be performing configuration management and all is well. For these managers we suggest that they ask their organization ten questions as referenced in this blog on how to Determine if Configuration Management and Change Control is Under Management Control.
A CMsights reader recently commented that when trying to engage their managers about the important role of CM they first had to help them see the CM problems that exist before they could educate them further. They found greater success in first exposing the problems, challenges, and pains as symptoms of inadequate CM. That is, starting at the end with “what happens without CM” and working backwards instead of starting at the beginning with “what is CM” and working forward. They asked if CMstat had a “configuration management assessment checklist” of our own.
Years ago, we would have responded that a generic checklist was not possible because everyone is dead set on thinking their industry, business, products, processes, and customers are all very different from even those with whom they compete in the same industry for the same contracts. Accordingly, they conclude incorrectly that their pains, problems, needs, and requirements must all be quite unique. Yet, when it comes to deficiencies in CM this is rarely the case. Everyone is indeed very special, but not everyone is very different!
The value of Configuration Management within various industries for different applications is driven by many of the same problems and pains. Yes, how a firm responds to (or ignores) these challenges, and their consequences, is very different which then gives them the impression that they are all very different. But that does not mean their underlying deficiencies and problems are different.
To illustrate this further, let’s look at a short version of CMstat’s Configuration Management Assessment Checklist that we use in our CM consulting practice.
If you checked off more than a few of the above items, your organization may be underperforming in its CM functional capability, workflow capacity, or skills maturity. Or if there are problems you have seen over your career that we have missed please share them by leaving a comment below.
To schedule an independent assessment of your organization’s CM capacity, processes, and tools so you can begin to improve upon them contact the CM specialists at CMstat with a phone call to (877) 537-1959 or email to information@cmstat.com.
