I need to conduct the survey that provides, at a high-level, what current CM practices 5-7 customers in the satellite industry use for hardware, software, and information (e.g., documentation and
drawings). I've identified the CM practices as: management & planning, configuration identification, configuration
change control, configuration status accounting, and verification &
audit.
I've identified the companies and persons I will interview and am now trying to develop a list of questions that could be answered (with or without the interviewee conducting minimal research) in a week or less. Any suggestions on pertinent questions to ask? I have some simple yes/no questions as to if the company uses and maintains CM practices for software, hardware, and documentation. But, I suspect these simple yes/no questions are insufficient. I familiary with CM as it applies to documentation, but I'm just learning about CM as it applies to hardware and software. My concern is that I may not be asking the right questions for hardware and software. What other questions should I be asking? Are there pertinent questions to ask that involve collecting numbers (e.g., lines of software code, number of COTS software products). Any resources I could use as a guide?
since you indicate that you are contacting customers in the satellite industry - you should probably review some of the industry standards (e.g. IEEE 828, ISO 1007) and frameworks (e.g. CMMI, ITIL v3) that are commonly used by firms in this space. This is tradition "old-school" CM and should include at minimum the classic four functions of:
* configuration identification
* status accounting
* change control
* configuration audit
are you familar with these terms?
Bob Aiello, Technical Editor
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