Configuration information should be kept current and made available for planning, decision making, and managing changes to the defined
configurations. It is designed to work with the Borland Delphi software development environment. The product works with Delphi’s internal structures, which may consist of Author, Bugs , Conditions, Examples, Exceptions, History, Ignore, Internal, Notes, Parameters, Remarks, Return Value, See Also, Todo, and Version [Leahy 2002]. On one end of the documentation spectrum, one will find that many companies utilize no tools other than a word processor and some drawing tool to extract documentation out of their reluctant programmers. On the other end of the documentation spectrum, forward-thinking companies make significant investments in their software development departments by outfitting them with tool suites such as 001. The vast majority of organizations lie somewhere in between these two extremes.
The CM process became its own technical discipline sometime in the late 1960s when the DoD developed a series of military standards called the “480 series” (i.e., MIL-STD-480, MIL-STD-481 and MIL-STD-483) that were subsequently issued in the 1970s. Many of these functions and models have redefined CM from its traditional holistic approach to technical management. Some treat CM as being similar to a librarian activity, and break out change control or change management as a separate or stand alone discipline. Although the majority of software documentation is produced manually ” that is, done with word processing programs or with tools such as Microsoft Visio ” there are also some systems designed to ease the process, that will produce “automatic” documentation.
These are designed to offer operators guaranteed availability and make the picture more complex with the operator managing the asset but the OEM taking on the liability to ensure its serviceability. At a minimum, software documentation should consist of the following items. It is obvious that enforcing configuration management within a company requires the use of automated systems to keep track of the various configuration information about the product.
This chapter discusses the relationship between proper documentation techniques and related configuration status accounting procedures. Another advantage is that the user documentation development process serves double duty as a functional test. As the analyst or tech writer is developing the tutorial, he or she might just uncover some bugs. Once the system is implemented, aside from the end users that the system was developed for, there might be some computer support operations personnel who are required to support this system in some way.
Certain types of
configuration audits (i.e., functional configuration audit (FCA), physical
Configuration management database
configuration audit (PCA) are performed to verify that development was
completed satisfactorily, and to verify that each configuration item conforms
to the documentation that defines it. CM identifies systems configuration and
components (hardware, software, documentation, and data) and develops and
implements the change control process as specified in the configuration
show services accounting status inline-jflow fpc-slot (When IPv4, IPv6 and Bridge Family Are Configured)
management plan. Documentation is an often-neglected but very necessary component of the software development life cycle (SDLC). There are numerous approaches and methods available to software development teams to assist with the task.
Increasingly, this user manual is being supplied right on the CD rather than on paper. One is more of an encyclopedia that explains the terms and workings of the system when the end user has a specific question. While a data dictionary (DD) is usually included in a System Design Specification (SDS), if it is not included, it should be included here. An excerpt of a DD is provided in Table 7.5 and in Appendix C. A data dictionary consits of the “terms of reference” for the data that is used in the system.
The benefits of a CMS/CMDB includes being able to perform functions like root cause analysis, impact analysis, change management, and current state assessment for future state strategy development. Example systems, commonly identifies themselves as IT Service Management (ITSM) systems, include FreshService, ServiceNow and Samanage. It is sad to say that most organizations do not measure the effectiveness of their programmers. Those that do should add this information to the system documentation. This includes a listing of all metrics (formulae) used and the results of those measurements. At a minimum, the weekly status reports and management reports generated from toolsets such as Microsoft Project should be included in the system documentation.
Decades worth of empirical data shows that software documentation process and products are key components of software quality. These studies show that poor-quality, out-of-date, or missing documentation is a major cause of errors in future software development and maintenance. For example, the majority of defects discovered during integration testing are design and requirements defects (e.g., defects in documentation that were introduced before any code was written). Configuration identification names specific products to be
developed during each life cycle phase according to the project plan and
quality assurance (QA) plan. The CM identification process is a mechanism for
identifying and labeling products (i.e., configuration items) produced during
the development process. The configuration management (CM) process
provides the framework for the identification, control, status accounting,
roles and responsibilities, and standards and procedures for developing and
- This serviceability is often defined in terms of the amount of usage the component has had since it was new, since fitted, since repaired, the amount of use it has had over its life and several other limiting factors.
- His technique calls for layering information onto a model through a series of refinements.
- Microsoft Help Workshop is often used to assist in developing these help files, which are compiled from RTF ( rich-text format) files.
- These studies show that poor-quality, out-of-date, or missing documentation is a major cause of errors in future software development and maintenance.
- There are two levels of product and, thus, two levels of product identifier.
- ITIL specifies the use of a Configuration management system (CMS) or Configuration management database (CMDB) as a means of achieving industry best practices for Configuration Management.
implementing the change control process.
Hence, a Windows-style format in creating help files (Figure 7.7) has become the de facto standard. Microsoft Help Workshop is often used to assist in developing these help files, which are compiled from RTF ( rich-text format) files. Programmers usually, although not always, initiate their programming assignment by drawing one or more flowcharts that diagram the “nuts and bolts” of the actual program. As one can see, configuration documentation is consistent with the documentation produced throughout the life cycle of a typical systems development effort. Configuration management is used to maintain an understanding of the status of complex assets with a view to maintaining the highest level of serviceability for the lowest cost. Specifically, it aims to ensure that operations are not disrupted due to the asset (or parts of the asset) overrunning limits of planned lifespan or below quality levels.
David Tufflye, a consultant who specializes in producing high-quality documentation to a predefined standard, says that consistent, accurate project documentation is known to be a major factor contributing to information systems quality. Configuration accounting status is the process of recording and reporting the status of item identification and changes to items, data and documents. It includes configuration changes and change implementation status, modification status, deviations and waivers for an item, with references to supportive data and documentation. Most systems are built using a client/server metaphor that is quite interactive.