MIL-HDBK-61A: Data Management

< Previous | Contents | Next >

9.1 CM Related Data Management Activity

In this age of rapidly developing information technology, data management and particularly the management of digital data is an essential prerequisite to the performance of configuration management. Digital data is information prepared by electronic means and made available to users by electronic data access, interchange, transfer, or on electronic/magnetic media. There is virtually no data today, short of handwritten notes, that does not fall into this category. Configuration management of data is therefore part of data management activity; and management of the configuration of a product configuration cannot be accomplished without it.

Figure 9-1 is an activity model for configuration management of data. All of the activities shown apply to configuration documentation. Most of the activities apply to all data. The model illustrates that the process is driven by business rules established based on the Contractor process as adjusted to accommodate the Government's concept of operations for the processing of digital data, and specific contract data requirements. It assumes a data workflow that encompasses four progressive status categories of digital data files.

  • Working data, where the data is under the originator's control only

  • Released data, where working data has been approved by the contractor's established approval process, released for its intended use, and is now subject to contractor configuration control procedures

  • Submitted data, where contractor released data has been formally submitted to the Government for approval

  • Approved data, where contractor submitted data has been approved for its intended use by the Government

When the data process is initiated to create or revise an item of data, or to perform any of the actions necessary to bring it from one status level to the next, the various rule sets illustrated in the figure are triggered to facilitate the work flow. The result is a data product with:

  • Appropriate document, document representation and data file identification,

  • Version control,

  • Clear and unambiguous relationships to the product configuration with which it is associated, and to the changes which delineate each configuration of the product

In addition, the data is available for access in accordance with contractually agreed to rules for submittal, transmission, or on-line access (as appropriate), in the prescribed format (document representation) that can be used by the application software available to the authorized user.

Handbook image

For correct application of this information, see NOTE on Contents page