I have worked with tens of CM professionals and "paraprofessionals" who perform some functions of CM without training. Almost all of them, including myself, happened into it. I was a technical publications manager for a software company. It had SCM pros, but no one to manage the data, databases, and websites. I carved a niche for myself managing the data, and then read every CM document and process I could get my hands on. I was recognized by a product assurance manager and given a CM job. The rest came through hands-on work, study, networking, and professional certification. CM is a discipline that requires practice. We are more like tradesmen in the sense of doing practical work with tangible outputs that is learned and honed over time. CM is not really available in higher education, and the visibility of it -- when children say what they want to be when they grow up -- is close to nonexistent. I think that engineering AND management schools should add CM to their curricula and consider similar for other support disciplines such as QA. Not everyone will be a chief engineer. Someone has to keep track of what’s going on to control the integrity of lifecycle development and the build process. Perhaps if we start grooming people to become CM professionals as much as doctors, lawyers, and businesspersons, we might gain some prestige. So, back to what is looked for…My mentor told me that I had excellent problem-solving and interpersonal skills, as well as the ability to communicate in person and in writing. What I did not know about the tools (Rational ClearQuest, ClearCase, and Harvest) would be taught to me. At the same time, I was trained by the corporation in digital software development lifecycle and the corporate methodology. Everyone in the lifecycle received the mandatory training. It has been the cornerstone of my career progress. You can’t do the work well if you don’t know what the lifecycle steps are to do it properly. Personally, I have had the honor and pleasure to interview candidates for CM positions. Prior experience is very valuable. If one has demonstrated ability, it helped greatly in the process. However, I did give someone with no CM experience a job because pertinent job skills from other employment were evident. For example, Maria* was clearly underemployed. She had been a copy clerk (other duties as assigned) for another company and wanted new employment after returning from maternity leave. She recounted experiences providing customer service, organizing hard and softcopy information, and administrating an information technology network. She knew the tenets of CM (planning and scheduling, identification, version control, change control, verification, and status accounting) without knowing the CM terms. She had not audited or managed a build, but she had the intellect to do so. She had a drive about her that demonstrated to me that she wanted more than she had. She talked about wishing she had more education. I hired Maria, and she made herself my protégé. She devoured every assignment and training session, read on her own, and asked questions. She received the lifecycle corporate training and enrolled in college to complete her degree. She became a valuable asset to the team, which I have now departed.

I am working on my favorite assignment, which is to clean up a huge tangle of enterprise data along with the organizing of the software development environment. I get to use my ECM and SCM talents and work with every person in the enterprise. Pretty cool!

I am a CM professional in the FAA...not exactly aircraft/aeronautics. However, I think your observations are accurate. We still work according to requirements that must be traced throughout the development lifecycle. My group is a support group, and we have attempted to go Lean from the bottom up. It does not work because management refuses to engage in the conversation. The CM discipline is a low priority.

2010 will have a strong focus on IT governance and compliance. Lots of companies (e.g. Toyota et al) are under the microscope these days. Having the Office of the Currency (OCC) find out that a bank has developers pushing their own code into production could get the bank shut down. Similarly having the Government Accountability Office (GAO) determine that a government agency (or one of their contractors) is not following proper CM procedures will also get you into trouble - just as a public firm failing their SOX audit. This is good for CM experts. Make sure that you take a look at Standards (e.g. IEEE 828) or frameworks (e.g. Cobit) to know how to establish IT Controls that will help your organize breeze through an audit. There is a lot more ahead in 2010 - and its going to be a great year! Bob Aiello Editor in Chief CM Crossroads