configuration management

For some organizations, IT governance is just another set of standards that is stated yet with few (or no) compliance expectations, little actual verification occurring, few or no metrics to indicate compliance, and even less use of the results by senior management to run their organization. Without support for standards, including practices, policy, verification, metrics and management’s commitment to use the results to manage the organization, IT governance, like any other standard, will only be perceived as yet another item that has little management support and is lacking value in the organization.

When it comes to IT governance, a key issue is transparency of process and data, all the way up the chain.

Conventional wisdom tells us that standards are a good thing. They are based on best practices and provide guidance to help people do their jobs well. They are so widely accepted that their worth almost goes without saying. As with most things that go without saying, though, standards are not always what they are built up to be. In spite of the plethora of standards in the software industry, we still struggle to achieve successful projects. Even in organizations that are standard-centric, projects end up in challenged (or worse) states.

Part of managing software development is dealing with the challenges that arise. This article discusses the most basic software configuration management, capability to manage different configurations and the financial costs to do so.