A question came up in another topic, roughly: "Where does the CM Manager belong in the organization?" I found that to answer the question I needed to know what the CM Manager does - and this depends both on the tools and the organization.
In some organization's the CM Manager is responsible for builds. In others, not. In some the CM Manager is responsible for administration (ensuring servers running, users access, backups, etc.). In others, not.
So what does your CM Manager do? (and what CM tool(s) do you use?)
I'll start. We use CM+. Our product owner defines problems and activities to be addressed in each release of each product, in a prioritized fashion. The CM Managers observes, and occasionally contributes.
The CM Manager will handle most tool related issues. For example, if we change the host id or IP Address of a site (CM+MultiSite), the CM Manager will have to ensure those ids are modified in the "sites" file and then restart the transaction server on the affected site. When we do upgrades to CM+ (about once a year), the CM Manager is responsible for ensuring there is no down time (i.e. less than 5 minutes) and is responsible for ensuring that if it were necessary, we could cut back to the previous release.
More on the CM side, our CM Manager generates new Build IDs/Records to be used for system builds. Our CM Manager decides when to freeze a baseline (i.e. to create a baseline reference point). Our CM Manager decides where our "sites" are and brings up/takes down a site as necessary.
On the process side, our CM Manager ensures that the process is clearly visible within CM+, for changes, problems, requirements, whatever. Our CM manager creates new roles if necessary (e.g. customer rep). Our CM Manager adds new menu items, dashboards, and dialog panels as necessary, typically sitting down with a knowledgeable role representative from start to finish (typically for about an hour of interactive implementation).
And our CM Manager provides some help desk functions, especially to new users, along with a 2-hour course on the use of CM+.
So what do you do as a CM Manager?
