Organizations use various strategies in their operations to meet their overall goals. The use of technology in the organizations’ operations has made it necessary for them to use software that are tailor made to meet specific requirements. Data modeling is one of organizations’ strategies under process modeling. According to Roe (2017) data modeling is the documentation of software and business system designs. Data Management Book of Knowledge defines data modeling as an analysis and design method used to define and analyze data requirements and define logical and physical structures that support those requirements (Roe, 2017). Data modeling supports the information systems in an organization. Data models use diagrams, symbols and texts to represent the flow of data through a software application within an organization. On the other hand, configuration management is the process of controlling, recording and reporting changes in the functional and physical characteristics of a product, result or component within an organization (Whyte & Lindkvist, 2016). Configuration management focuses on the organizations’ assets that can affect the functions or layouts of other organization processes due to changes. Configuration management supports the organization system for organization effectiveness. Therefore, configuration management is applicable across a wider range of situations as it cuts across all the organization systems as opposed to process modeling, in this case data modeling, which is limited to the information systems.
Organizations use configuration management to track changes in their products so as to mitigate any negative effects resulting from these changes. Configuration management enables end to end monitoring of products. It identifies the product structure and configuration items through status accounting to determine the system configuration at any stage of the lifecycle (Whyte & Lindkvist, 2016). Configuration management goes further to report on the availability of data and audits the data to assess the consistency of the information. The use of configuration management therefore enables organizations to address the problems that occur as a result of changes in one of the organization systems which in turn affects a wider set of systems that can affect the final product. Organizations can use configuration management to ensure high quality production. The capability for configuration management to assess product information at various stages also enables organizations to improve their operation processes as they can be able to identify where and why the problems occurred and come up with the appropriate interventions addressing a specific system. Whyte & Lindkvist (2016) stated that configuration management allows the tracing of product data to understand where problems occur, diagnosing and contributing to recovery.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
According to Whyte & Lindkvist (2016), configuration management ensures maintaining the integrity of information throughout the life-cycle of a product by controlling changes. Organizations use the hierarchy authorization approach in order to control any changes within the system. An employee is required to seek approval from his/her supervisors in order to issue commands into the system. The supervisors assess the baseline information and consults the recommendations of other representatives before making any decisions regarding changes to the system (Whyte & Lindkvist, 2016). Configuration management therefore ensures that the employees adhere to the recommended processes, guidelines and procedures. This also limits the occurrence of errors within the organization.
Technological evolution can present a challenge in the management of systems for most organizations. The use of rigid management approaches that do not allow for changes to take place cam result into disruptions in the organization’s operations. The advances in computing processing capacity enables people to engage in real time or near real time interactions rather than freeze framed (Whyte & Lindkvist, 2016). The ability of configuration management to allow for changes to be made at any point of the organization operations allows organizations to stop the use of inefficient technological systems and adopt efficient ones. Whyte & Lindkvist (2016) stated that the US Department of Defense cancelled the use of its configuration management standard MIL-STD-973 in 2000 and developed a new standard for configuration management to changes through life using digital systems. Organizations that use configuration management can be able to adopt new technological approaches that improve organization efficiency.
Configuration management has made it possible to link asset information to other data sets. Organizations can be able to assess its ability in project management through this linkage. Recent industry reports predict the linkage between data sets and analytics for prediction purposes (Whyte & Lindkvist, 2016). The systems will be able to predict possible scenarios and therefore act as a guide in the decision making process within the organization. According to Whyte & Lindkvist (2016) dashboards provide an interface for data sets in order to evaluate organization supply chain management. Configuration management enables organizations to make decisions regarding their performance, employees’ productivity and product popularity among others.
In conclusion, organizations undertake process modeling and configuration management in their operations in order to meet their goals. Data modeling is one of the process modeling processes that supports an organization’s information system. However, configuration management can be used across all the systems in the organization. Organizations that use configuration management achieve efficiency through preventing changes that can impact products negatively, adoption of appropriate technologies and evaluation of employees; productivity. Configuration management also reinforces the adherence to organization procedures and policies. It also protects information as controls are put in place to ensure that access to sensitive information is restricted. The capability of configuration management to cut across various systems within the organization makes it more applicable to many situations as opposed to data modeling which is limited to the information systems only.
References
Roe, C. (2017), What is Data Modeling . Retrieved from http://www.dataversity.net/what-is-data-modeling/ accessed on 24 th July, 2018
Whyte, J. & Lindkvist, C. (2016), Managing Change in Complex Projects: Configuration Management, Asset Information and Big Data, International Journal of Project Management, 34 (2). pp. 339-351
