Change Control vs. Configuration Management: A Comparative Guide

Change Control and Configuration Management are two very closely related organizational practices. In order to have an in-depth understanding of Change Control vs Configuration Management, we need to understand both concepts in detail.

According to GlobeNewswire, the Change and Configuration Management market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 8.26% to £ 2.15 billion by 2028. Consumers' evolving preferences make businesses focus on Change and Configuration Management, utilizing change management tools to keep the product more relatable and customer-centric. In this blog, you will learn the critical difference in Change Control vs Configuration Management, focusing on their importance in an organisation.  

Table of Contents  

1) What is Change Control? 

2) What is Configuration Management? 

3) Change Control vs Configuration Management 

     a) Focus and scope  

     b) Objectives  

     c) Components   

     d) Application 

4) Conclusion 

What is Change Control? 

Every business needs to improve and iterate its product or service based on the forever-changing preferences of customers. While making the change in a project, organisations need to ensure that the modifications fulfil the objectives of the suggested change.   

Change Control process includes crucial steps like identifying, documenting, approving or disapproving and controlling the change in the approved project plan. The method of Change Control records the project at various stages and focuses on the specification of the projects.   

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During the process of Change Control, it is essential to make efficient project plans, adjust the project scopes, and set realistic goals, budgets and schedules. The following fundamental steps of the Change process will help you understand the concept of Change Control better:


 

What is Change Control? 

a) Planning: Before initiating the change in the project, a detailed plan is laid out focusing on the flaws, specifications or intent of the product that needs to be changed. The planning process includes stakeholders and employees to address these essential changes.  

b) Analysis: In the second phase of the change process, a team of expert analysts investigate the plan based on various internal and external factors of an organisation. After assessing the possible risks and threats from the proposed changes, the analysis teams can suggest some ways to reduce the impact of the risks or how to avoid them.   

c) Decision-making and review: After the planning and analysis of the project, the management team finalises whether to implement the proposed changes. If the plan is too risky or fails to address the objectives of desired changes, it can be terminated in this stage.   

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d) Implementing change: The implementation stage of the Change Control process involves testing and recording the effects of the tests to make sure that the changes are aligned with the objectives and goals of the project. In this stage, the employees are trained on new specifications, equipment, software and regulations.   

e) Closing: This is the final stage to completely implement the change. This step thoroughly examines whether the changes meet the desired expectations and goals. The closing step also provides proof of success for the adopted changes. 
 

What is Configuration Management? 

Configuration Management is a crucial part of the Change Management process, which helps in controlling and documenting the development lifecycle of the product. Both Change and Configuration Management are vital when the company is undergoing any changes. There are multiple changes during the process of developing a product, and Configuration Management helps in identifying and systematically controlling the changes in the configuration of the product.   

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The Change Control process is a part of the Configuration Management plan. The Configuration Management team is a document of all the changes that are suggested and allows changes after approval.      

One of the most significant objectives of Configuration Management is to record and maintain the configuration of the product with or without the implemented changes. Some of the key steps in the Configuration Management process are as follows:

Configuration Management Process

a) Configuration Planning: In the first step of Configuration Management, a detailed plan is laid out to ensure how you will assess and control the details of the product.   

b) Configuration Identification: All the information about each product which requires a change is gathered in this step. This information is collected from various stages of the product cycle, including production, development and applications while in use.   

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c) Configuration Control: After the information is collected, configuration teams can create a baseline, which typically helps define the product. This baseline helps in evaluating the requested change and ensures that the changes made do not alter the hardware, software or documentation of the product.    

d) Configuration Accounting: This step documents the steps to be taken while implementing a change and suggests ways to avoid unnecessary changes in the product. By tracking all the versions of the product before and after the changes, accounting helps to track the success rate of the changes.   

e) Configuration Auditing: In this step, the Configuration team run a test on the product to ensure that the implemented changes are as per the requirements and do not hinder the baseline. This step also helps identify issues in the changes and address them in time. 

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Change Control vs Configuration Management 

Although both Change Control and Configuration Management are very closely related terms which are used to identify, implement and track the changes in the system, .they are still different from each other. Understanding the fundamentals of Change management principles will help in figuring out differences between processes.The difference in processes between Change Control vs Configuration Management, help organisations to utilise them appropriately. Let’s look at some of these differences in detail:

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Conclusion 

In order to understand the key difference of Change Control vs Configuration Management, you need to learn about the concepts of these two methods. Both concepts play a vital role in ensuring a controlled and consistent management of changes and configurations within a system. We hope that you understood the processes of Change and Configuration Management, which will help you to implement changes in your organisation smoothly.

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