Attributes of Effective Configuration Management For Systems of Systems

This paper explores the problems related to configuration management (CM) for systems of systems, and describes several attributes of successful system-of-systems configuration management. The authors show that, just as with other management aspects of systems of systems, you don´t stop performing CM when you leave conventional systems behind; instead, there are additional concerns that must be addressed to achieve effective CM in systems of systems. Presented as a system of systems CM framework, the authors describe several principles and supporting attributes for effective system-of-systems CM. These principles and attributes are applied against a real-life scenario to illustrate how they can be used to increase the probability of success when initiating a system of systems CM strategy.