The purpose of Configuration Management (CM) is to establish and maintain the integrity of the products of the software project throughout the project's software life cycle. This includes documenting how CM is managed, roles and responsibilities, how configuration item (CI) changes are made, and communicating all aspects of CM to project stakeholders. Without a documented configuration management plan it is likely that CIs may be missed, incomplete, or unnecessary work is done because of a lack or version and document control.
CM involves identifying configuration items for the software project, controlling these configuration items and changes to them, and recording and reporting status and change activity for these configuration items
The CM Plan is establishes the guidelines and applies CM discipline to the development, installation, maintenance, modification, enhancement, and traceability of application software and documentation.