Configuration Management is all about responding to change. Good CM practices enable your technology force to engage and deal with any challenges that occur during your software and systems development effort. This is accomplished by establishing best practices to effectively manage the configuration and release management changes that need to occur. The most important part of this effort is Planning for CM. Most people make the mistake of thinking that a CM Plan somehow means that everything is set in stone. Actually good planning helps you be more Agile and deal with anything that occurs. I lead this effort by talking about Software Process Improvement and overall change management. Matt Johnson takes the deep dive on writing CM Plans. Mario Moreira discusses the Dimensions of SCM Planning. Mike Sayko discusses creating a CM Plan to Support Iterative Software Development. Bridget Pilloud then discusses planning for the runtime environment. And of course, I return to the scene of the crime to whisper some of my infamous Guerrilla Tactics for job hunters (sshh! don't let your old boss read this column)!

CM Planning is a critical skill that all CMers need to have. I would also like to recommend that you take the deep dive and study the IEEE 828 standard for CM Planning. You can contact me personally if you would like some help with this!

Bob Aiello
Editor in Chief

CM Crossroads
raiello@acm.org