Prehistory

[From CMversusSCM, continued in CmTradition]

Prehistory is history before writing, before there were written records. Thus history is implicitly history of writing, although this is obviously not a restriction with respect to prehistory.

I believe CM is in a similar way SCM before software. Of course software existed already, only it hadn't yet been taken into use as it has with SCM. The management techniques of CM look to me like the recording techniques of prehistory, as e.g. in the Finnish Kalevala: rhymed songs to be learned by rote. I.e. processes to cope with the absence of tools.

In short, the ambiguity with CM is similar to this with metaphysics: did Aristotle mean a general science of the being (later called ontology), or a special science (the first philosophy, later called theology)? I can hardly see abstract definitions of a general CM, which would have been later specialized for software, hardware, systems, or whatever. What we face is more a specialized CM, optimized for paper, meetings, and coffee, and directly implemented on hydro-carbon hardware and traditional organizations (projects).

One relatively recent avatar (as in the Indian mythology, in which there are avatars of Shiva or Vishnu) of prehistoric CM was found in OSI Network Management, as one of the 5 functional areas ('FCAPS' by their initials). Configuration Management in this context was largely a matter of inventory, and of recording of compatibility requirements. But even when software started to be found embedded in the network elements (even downloadable), and was thus CM of Software, this never developed in SCM -- a discipline which requires software tools, and uses software as a medium with which to represent the managed resources.

There is of course a more recent tendency to remove the ubiquitous "S" in SCM, speaking of the same thing. I believe this is however dangerous, since it leaves space for ambiguity and misunderstandings. Not everybody yet has noticed the essential progress made (30 years ago).

-- MarcGirod - 19 Feb 2003