Status accounting and reporting

Each asset or CI will have one or more discrete states through which it can progress. The significance of each state should be defined in terms of what use can be made of the asset or CI in that state. There will typically be a range of states relevant to the individual asset or CIs.

A simple example of a lifecycle is:

• Development or draft – denoting that the CI is under development and that no particular reliance should be placed on it
• Approved – meaning that the CI may be used as a basis for further work
• Withdrawn – meaning withdrawn from use, either because the CI is no longer fit for purpose or because there is no further use for it.

The way CIs move from one state to another should be defined, e.g. an application release may be registered, accepted, installed or withdrawn. An example of a lifecycle for a package application release is shown in Figure 4.14. This will include defining the type of review and approval required and the authority level necessary to give that approval. In Figure 4.12 the role that can promote the CI from Accepted to Installed is ‘ release management ’. At each lifecycle status change the CMS should be updated with the reason, date-time stamp and person that did the status change. The planning activities should also establish any attribute s that should be updated at each state.

Figure 4.14 Example of asset and configuration item lifecycle

Configuration status accounting and reporting is concerned with ensuring that all configuration data and documentation is recorded as each asset or CI progresses through its lifecycle. It provides the status of the configuration of a service and its environment as the configuration evolves through the service lifecycle.

Status reporting provides the current and historical data concerned with each CI that in turn enables tracking of changes to CIs and their record s, i.e. tracking the status as a CI changes from one state to another, e.g. ‘ development ’, ‘ test ’, ‘ live ’ or ‘withdrawn’.

The organization should perform configuration status accounting and reporting activities throughout the lifecycle of the service in order to support and enable an efficient Configuration Management process. Typical activities include:

• Maintaining configuration record s through the service lifecycle and archiving them according to agreements, relevant legislation or best industry practice, standard s, e.g. ISO 9001, Quality Management information
• Managing the recording, retrieval and consolidation of the current configuration status and the status of all preceding configurations to confirm information correctness, timeliness, integrity and security
• Making the status of items under Configuration Management available throughout the lifecycle, e.g. to ensure appropriate access, change, build and release controls are followed, e.g. build specification s
• Recording changes to CIs from receipt to disposal
• Ensuring that changes to configuration baseline s are properly documented. This can be achieved by consolidating the evolving configuration states of configuration item s to form documented baselines at designated times or under defined circumstances.

Records

During the configuration identification and control activities, configuration status records will be created. These records allow for visibility and traceability and for the efficient management of the evolving configuration. They typically include details of:

• Service configuration information (such as identification number, title, effective dates, version, status, change history and its inclusion in any baseline)
• The service or product configuration (such as design or build status)
• The status of release of new configuration information
• Changes implemented and in progress
• Capturing the results from quality assurance tests to update the configuration record s.

The evolving service configuration information should be recorded in a manner that identifies the cross-references and inter relationship s necessary to provide the required reports.

Дата добавления: 2015-10-29