Table of Contents

Appendix B – Annotated Bibliography

These materials focus on the concepts of configuration management, and are not focused on one particular aspect.

Web sites

  1. "CM 101"

URL: http://www.cmtimes.com/CM%20101/intro_cm_101.htm
CM 101 is a series of Web pages that promises a general introduction to configuration management, although it is largely focused on change control. The first page contains a diagram that highlights the main parts in the configuration management life cycle and a brief description of each. The second page contains a decision flow diagram for the entire configuration management process. The subsequent pages detail each decision in the diagram and explain its use. Overall, this site is a good introduction to change control, but does not adequately introduce the other configuration management features.

  1. Lyon, David D. "On Configuration Management and Program Management." PDM Information Company, November, 2000.

URL: http://www.pdmic.com/cmic/publications/pmforum.shtml
This article provides a simplified definition of configuration management and goes on to relate it to data management. The author provides an example of an automated configuration management system that consists of one database, which stores all final versions of products and their baselines. The author goes on to state that configuration management is essentially the same as data management, and that the configuration and project manager positions will eventually be the same.

  1. Daley, Jack, Fred J. Bahrs & Mike Gearhart. "What is Configuration Management?" PDM Information Company.

URL: http://www.pdmic.com/cmic/introtoCM.shtml
This Web site attempts only to provide the reader with an overview of configuration management. It is a good resource for those who might have heard of configuration management, but do not know what it is. In its seven pages the paper touches a number of topics including why configuration management is useful, how to implement it, a definition of CM, and its major components. Although an informative summary, this paper is not intended to be a resource for CM design.

Books

Books currently in print

  1. Monahan, Ray E. Engineering Documentation Control Practices and Procedures. Marcel Dekker, Inc. New York, NY. 1995.

Engineering Documentation Control Practices and Procedures focuses on configuration management from the perspective of private industry responsible for supplying a product to a client. The first chapter provides an introduction to configuration management terminology, along with the aspects of good configuration management, and its objectives. Chapter two describes configuration planning and provides a brief discussion of a baseline system. Chapter three describes the entire configuration management process, and a detailed outline is included. Although much of the book is not directly applicable to the transportation industry, chapters eight through twelve contain highly useful information regarding changes to an already developed configuration. After defining the types of possible changes, the author focuses on non-interchangeable ones and how a good configuration management system deals with them. The last section of the book is devoted to describing how and when to use automated configuration management systems. An appendix lists companies that provide software packages.

  1. Mikkelsen, Tim & Susan Pherigo. Practical Software Configuration Management: The Late Night Developer’s Handbook. Prentice Hall. Upper Saddle River, NJ. 1997.

Practical Software Configuration Management provides a very practical introduction to configuration management. It begins with an introduction to principles of configuration management, as well as a discussion of fundamental concepts and terminology. The next section discusses practical issues from both the individual user and team perspectives. The last part of the book focuses on configuration management tools, describing many public domain and commercial tools. Of particular interest to transportation management is the book’s discussion of the use of configuration management during system operations and maintenance (not just development). The book also comes with a CD-ROM, which includes configuration management tools to provide the reader with opportunities for hands-on experience.

  1. Watts, Frank B. Engineering Documentation Control Handbook: Configuration Management in Industry. William Andrew Publishing: Norwich, New York. 2000.

Unlike the vast majority of books available on configuration management, Engineering Documentation Control Handbook focuses entirely on configuration management in industry. The author focuses on a simplified, fast configuration management system, which conforms to, and usually surpasses, DOD standards. The chapters titled "Change Control" and "Fast Change" give an exceptional explanation of how to handle configuration modifications. In these chapters the author gives a detailed description of how to set up a system that allows the fastest possible changes to take place. Also, many case studies are provided, which impart further insight on how to implement the correct system for a given situation. Overall, the book is very easy to understand and serves as an excellent introduction and handbook to a configuration management system for industry.

Books currently out of print

  1. Buckley, Fletcher J. Implementing Configuration Management: Hardware, Software, and Firmware. IEEE Computer Society Press. Los Amalitos, CA. 1996.

Implementing Configuration Management is well suited for transportation professionals because it directly addresses configuration management in software/hardware systems. The first chapter provides a general description of configuration management and a definition of the purpose to "maintain the integrity of the product throughout development and production cycles." Chapter two provides a description of the configuration management environment, which includes development and production. Chapter three covers configuration management planning, including the development of a plan and the associated procedures. The remainder of the book details each step of the configuration management process. An appendix contains definitions, acronyms, and abbreviations. A particular strength of this book is that it provides example configuration management plans: a general plan and a plan for a fictional power plant. The power plant configuration management plan is very similar to that of transportation management systems.

  1. Samaras, Thomas T. & Frank L. Czerwinski. Fundamentals of Configuration Management. Wiley-Interscience. New York, NY. 1971.

One of the first books available on configuration management, Fundamentals of Configuration Management is concerned primarily with basic, introductory material. Like most introductory CM publications, the book begins with an introduction to CM terms. Yet unlike more recent works, the authors do not assume the reader to be familiar with the subject. For this reason, the book is a great resource for personnel attempting to gain knowledge about CM for the first time. A brief history of configuration management also provides insight into why configuration management is valuable and what could happen without it. Also of special interest are chapters two and four, which deal with the maintenance side of configuration management, include job descriptions of each configuration team member, and provide the conditions and steps necessary to correctly change the system.

  1. Hajek, Victor G. Management of Engineering Projects. McGraw-Hill Book Company: New York. 1984.

The majority of Management of Engineering Projects is focused on general engineering management rather than configuration management. Chapter 14, however, provides a useful, brief introduction to configuration management. The first part of the chapter presents the general principles of configuration management, which include explanations on each of the phases of configuration management in a product’s life cycle. Towards the end of the chapter, the configuration management discussion focuses on managing software development.

Focused Resource List

These materials focus on specific aspects of configuration management. They are more specific and technical than the fundamental resources.

  1. Dart, S. "Concepts in Configuration Management Systems", Third International Software Configuration Management Workshop, ACM Press, June 1991.

URL: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/abstracts/abscm_concepts.html [Link no longer active]
This Web page provides a definition of configuration management, along with a statement of its primary purpose. The article focuses on the development of configuration management for large-scale software engineering products, but does not delve into software specific matters and therefore can be used as an introduction to configuration management in general. The article also has a comprehensive list of goals that configuration management should accomplish and provides guidance on how to attain them. Also included is a discussion of different configuration management implementations, which could provide a more thorough understanding of the capabilities of configuration management. A bibliography provides links to other software configuration management articles.

  1. Dart, Susan & Nadine Bounds. "CM Plans: The Beginning to your CM Solution." Carnegie Mellon University, 1998.

URL: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/papers/CM_Plans/CMPlans.MasterToC.html [Link no longer active]
This paper provides directions for implementing a configuration management plan. It contains a brief and general overview of configuration management, but focuses on the planning aspect. Included also are the results of 10 interviews conducted by the authors regarding managers' opinions about certain planning techniques. An outline provides a starting point for developing a configuration management plan, and a bibliography contains references to basic configuration management books.

  1. "Configuration Management Information Center: Book Shelf"

URL: http://www.pdmic.com/cmic/publications/books.shtml
Although many of the books are out of print and extremely difficult to find, this Web sites is a great resource for agencies interested in compiling a configuration management library because it lists about 50 books on the subject. Also, all the books are listed as links to Amazon.com, which contains a more detailed description of some of the more popular books.

  1. Harvey, Katherine E. "Summary of the SEI Workshop on Software Configuration Management" Carnegie Mellon University, December, 1986.

URL: http://www.sei.cmu.edu/pub/documents/86.reports/pdf/86tr005.pdf
This paper is a summary of the topics discussed at a 1986 meeting on software configuration management. Although the meeting focused on software configuration management, some principles can be applied to configuration management. A long discussion on a proposed system of configuration control boards includes the characteristics of an ideal CCB. The author’s proposed system would be extremely useful for an industry that foresees the engineers/developers and the CCBs conflicting over design. The author also proposes a system to enforce documentation and to ensure the creation of baselines during the development process.

  1. Software Configuration Management - Software Engineering Institute

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/scmHomePage.html [Link no longer active]
The Software Engineering Institute (SEI) was established by the U.S. Department of Defense to focus on advancing the state of software engineering and has emerged as a leading worldwide authority on software engineering. This site serves as the portal to various papers, reports, and presentations developed by SEI on the topic of configuration management. The papers most applicable to configuration management in general have been detailed in this review. Many other papers contain information that pertains only to software configuration management (SCM), such as automated tools for SCM and forecasts for the future of SCM.

  1. Rigby, Ken. "Configuration Management Plan – Model Text" 1998.

http://www.airtime.co.uk/users/wysywig/cmp.htm [Link is no longer active]
This Web site provides a model text for a configuration management plan. It provides the necessary language to create a tailored configuration management plan and includes sections on configuration identification, control, status accounting, and audits. It also briefly explains the goal of each section of the configuration management plan and provides links to more specific, detailed reviews of the sections.

  1. Tuffley, David. "How to Write Configuration Management Plans" Tuffley Computer Services Pty. Ltd. 2000.

http://www.tuffley.aust.com/tcs20005.htm [Link no longer active]
Although this site is basically an advertisement for the book How to Write Configuration Management Plans, it specifies the general goals of a configuration management system and provides a link to the book’s table of contents. The table of contents can serve as an outline for a configuration management plan because it includes many of the necessary elements described in standard IEEE 1042-1987.

  1. "TWRS Configuration Management Program"

http://www.hanford.gov/twrs/cmpp/cmpphome.htm [Link is no longer active]
The Tank Waste Remediation System Configuration Management (TWRS) Web site contains two links to configuration management plans. The first can be found by clicking on the "product’s life cycle" link. The second can be found by clicking on the "HNF-1900, Tank Waste Remediation System Configuration Management Plan" link. Although both plans contain essentially the same plan, HNF-1900, TWRS CM Plan is better worded and looks more like an official document. The first link, however, contains more information regarding the assignment of responsibilities and training of employees. The HNF-1900, TWRS CM Plan is a more specific document and includes detailed descriptions of how to implement the configuration management system in the TWRS environment. The first link leads to a CM plan, which provides explanation for all of its requirements and is, in general, easily readable.

  1. "Configuration Management"

http://www.oingo.com/topic/10/10251.html [Link no longer active]
This Web site is a portal to many other configuration management Web sites, including some that are referenced in this paper.

  1. "Software Engineering Standards – Configuration Management"

http://www.12207.com/test.htm
This Web site contains links to order the twenty most popular configuration management standards.

  1. "Standards MIL-STD Configuration Management Software Bob Kolacki Experience"

http://www.kolacki.com/critical_standards.htm
This Web site lists many government standards, such as those written for the U.S. Department of Defense, the armed forces, and NASA. When one standard is clicked on, a list of complimentary standards is brought up. There are, however, no direct links to any standards.

  1. "CM Resource Guide"

http://www.cmiiug.com/sites.htm
This Web site provides many links to other configuration management resources, including conferences, books, Web sites, training, professional organizations, and standards.

  1. "Configuration Management – Quality Resources Online"

http://www.quality.org/html/config.html [Link no longer active]
This Web site provides a large number of links to a variety of Web sites and documents concerning configuration management, including links to lists of books and training courses. The Web site also includes links to documents providing detailed explanations of configuration management.

  1. "NASA Software Configuration Management Guidebook"

http://satc.gsfc.nasa.gov/GuideBooks/cmpub.html [Link No longer active]
This guide provides a detailed description of a comprehensive software configuration management system. Included are sections covering configuration identification, control, status accounting, and authentication—all tailored to managing a software product.

  1. "IEEE Standards Online Search"

http://standards.ieee.org/catalog/olis/search.html
This Web page allows users to search the IEEE Web site for a desired IEEE standard.

Transportation Specific Resources

This section contains resources specific to configuration management for transportation systems.

  1. Gonzalez, Paul J. "A Guide to Configuration Management for Intelligent Transportation Systems," Mitretek Systems, Inc. April 2002.

This document was prepared for the Intelligent Transportation Systems Joint Program Office of the USDOT. It includes four major chapters:

  • Introduction.
  • Configuration Management Principles.
  • Configuration Management and ITS Systems.
  • Configuration Management Tools.

The paper describes all major principles involved within CM in the context of an ITS, which makes it a very valuable resource. The sections describing CM use during ITS system development and during system operation among the document’s strongest points.

  1. Smith, Brian L. "Configuration Management in Transportation Management Systems," Transportation Research Board. Washington, DC, January 2001.

This document identifies how configuration management is currently being developed and used by transportation management systems. It is intended as a resource document for professionals just beginning to apply CM. Agency managers and administrators, as well as other technical personnel, in both the public and private sectors can use this report as a reference tool to locate more in-depth material to support CM programs. The document addresses the fundamental concepts and principles of CM, the need for CM within transportation management systems, and some CM resources. Also, it contains information about the status of CM within transportation departments as of the beginning of 2001 and detailed case studies of the use of CM both outside and within the transportation field. A glossary is included. An appendix contains an example CM tool.

  1. Southwest Research Institute. "TRF Texas Configuration Management Strategy – Version 1.0," Texas Department of Transportation. October 2000.

This document, prepared by the Traffic Operations Division of the Texas DOT, proposes a plan and strategy for its configuration management system. Although it is written for the TDOT, the focus of this document is on software configuration management. The document provides a detailed description of the Traffic Operation Division’s proposal with descriptions of each facet of configuration management. Of particular interest is appendix B, which contains an easy-to-follow, configuration decision control flow diagram. The configuration management plan put forth is well thought out and easily understandable.

  1. National Engineering Technology Corporation. "Configuration Management Plan Overview," Caltrans. August 1997.

This document was intended to provide Caltrans with a typical, nonspecific configuration management plan to be used as a starting point for its configuration management system. This is an extremely useful document because instead of focusing on only software engineering, the overview is directed at determining a configuration management scheme for a transportation system. The outstanding part of this document is the attention to detail in appendix A, which not only lists all of the configuration items in a transportation system, but details the documentation that must accompany them as well. This document could serve as a model for other states beginning the configuration management planning process.

  1. Krueger, Michael E. & Randy Woolley. "Southern California’s Priority Corridor: System of Systems Approach to Configuration Management."

The paper contains an outline for the configuration management plan for the Southern California Priority Corridor, a project of the California Department of Transportation. It is the actual implementation of section 1.2 in the "Configuration Management Plan Overview", listed previously. The plan is a useful configuration management resource for transportation systems because it describes the Priority Corridor’s approach and outlines the implementation of its plan, including the organization and information flow of its configuration management system. The ultimate goal of the plan is to allow integration of all southern California’s ITS systems. Also included is a discussion on the costs of configuration management, which is unique because the majority of literature does not report any rule of thumb for cost estimation.

Standards List

This section provides brief descriptions of two relevant standards.

  1. Configuration Management Plan Standard (IEEE-828-1998)

An excellent resource to support the development of configuration management plans is the IEEE Standard for Software Configuration Management Plans. The standard addresses all levels of expertise, the entire system life cycle, roles of outside organizations, and the relationships of software and hardware. It provides an extensive list of items for consideration in key component areas. The standard provides a list of possible interfaces and information that must be defined for each interface. It also provides a list of information that must be addressed for subcontracted and acquired software. It handles each component of the configuration management process thoroughly, and it provides a section-by-section, cross-reference to the general standards. This standard supersedes standard IEEE-828-1990, and it is the only software configuration management standard to be offered by IEEE since standard IEEE-1042-1987 was withdrawn. This standard is listed as IEEE-828-1998 and can be purchased online at http://standards.ieee.org

  1. National Consensus Standard for Configuration Management (EIA 649). Electronic Industries Alliance. August, 1998

Standard 649 is a comprehensive guide for implementing and maintaining a configuration management system. Both the U.S. Department of Defense and the U.S. Internal Revenue Service have adopted the standard as the basis of their own configuration management systems. The standard's scope is to explain the major components of a configuration management system during a product’s life cycle, including the components' purpose, benefits, and best practices. The outline for each component description follows a pattern, beginning with a general description of the phase, which is followed by a detailed description of each aspect of that phase. Also, the standard summarizes each point in its principles, which are listed in annex B. Written as a general information piece on configuration management, the standard emphasizes that different environments/industries should customize their system to meet specific needs. The standard was developed with the U.S. Department of Defense and is compatible with the ISO 9000 series of standards.

Also, EIA 649 will replace MIL-STD-973. The standard is listed as EIA 649 and can be purchased online at the Web site: http://global.ihs.com. A more detailed review of this standard is included in this review.

Software Configuration Management Resources

These resources focus on software configuration management.

  1. "Configuration Management Bibliography"

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/bib/cm_bib.html [Link no longer active]
This Web page serves as an introduction to software configuration management. It contains links and references to many other resources, including books, conferences, other Web sites, standards, and papers.

  1. "Summary of Available CM Related Documents"

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/scmDocSummary.html [Link no longer active]
This Web page is a resource guide to software configuration management. Like the "Configuration Management Bibliography", this page contains numerous links to papers, journals, slide shows, and conferences. Unlike the bibliography, however, all these resources are available online.

  1. "Spectrum of Functionality in Configuration Management Systems"

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/tech_rep/TR11_90/TOC_TR11_90.html
This paper describes the purpose and main components of a software configuration management system. The chapter on issues for configuration management users focuses on topics such as when to implement a configuration management system, levels of configuration control, and configuration management system functionality. The chapter focusing on functionality in actual configuration management systems provides examples and explanations of current systems.

  1. "Issues in Configuration Management Adoption"

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/slides/adoption/SlidesCMadoption_01.html
This slide show, prepared by Susan Dart, provides an explanation of how and why a configuration management system can be hard to implement. It begins with a brief introduction of the components of a configuration management system, and subsequently focuses on adoption issues. It describes why different configuration management solutions are necessary for different working environments and provides a typical configuration management adoption process.

  1. "CM Really Is Exciting!"

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/abstracts/abscm_is_exciting.html [Link no longer active]
This slide show, prepared by Susan Dart in 1992, poses a number of typical questions regarding implementing a configuration management system. Although these questions are never answered in the slide show, they provide an excellent resource to begin thinking about how to implement a configuration management system. Software configuration management tools and their functionality are listed. Current accomplishments of configuration management systems are cited, and a list of functions that need to be included in future systems is provided.

  1. "Software Configuration Management: Advances in Software Development Environments"

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/abstracts/absscm_in_sde.html [Link no longer active]
This paper discusses the role of software configuration management in software development. It also discusses state-of-the-art, software configuration management practices, as well as current trends.

  1. "Configuration Management Systems"

ftp://ftp.sei.cmu.edu/pub/case-env/config_mgt/slides/cm_tutorial.pdf
After a brief introduction to configuration management, a discussion of configuration management planning highlights the most important functions of a plan. A number of questions that a configuration management planner should ask in order to tailor a configuration management system to his or her specific environment are cited throughout the slide show. Also, a list of tools is provided, along with a description of their general functionality. The slide show author gives his opinion of where configuration management is headed, as well as the functionality that new tools will provide.

  1. "A Software Engineering Resource List for Software Configuration Management"

http://wwwsel.iit.nrc.ca/favs/CMfavs.html [Link no longer active]
This site contains links to many software configuration management resources, such as associations, conferences, products, and other large indexes of software configuration management information. Notably, it contains a link to a library of papers and essays regarding issues in software configuration management.

  1. "Software Configuration Management at NRC"

http://wwwsel.iit.nrc.ca/projects/scm/ [Link no longer active]
This site provides background into a software configuration management research institute, the Canadian National Research Council. Initially, it provides background into their objectives and the focus of the research. It also provides links to several research papers written by some of their personnel and other SCM sites.

  1. "The State of Automated Configuration Management"

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/abstracts/absatr_cm_state.html [Link no longer active]
This site contains an abstract and full text version of a research paper that discusses the SEI software process maturity model. It analyzes and summarizes the state of configuration management automation. The author lists several tools that are valuable to software configuration management and concludes by describing the need for a set of commonly understood CM services.

  1. "Concepts in Configuration Management Systems"

http://www.sei.cmu.edu/legacy/scm/abstracts/absCMconcepts.html [Link no longer active]
This site contains an abstract and full text version of a research paper that discusses the user functionality provided by existing configuration management systems. Because a lack of common terminology among SCM professionals is still lacking, each concept is discussed within the framework of its particular system. It lists a number of examples of relevant CM systems and briefly discusses their functionality.

U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration