(PhD) 2014 Usman Ali School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering

333 Pages·2014·2.72 MB·English

CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT PROCESS MATURITY:
DEFINITION AND MATURATION OF CONFIGURATION
MANAGEMENT FOR AEROSPACE AND DEFENCE
INDUSTRIES

A thesis submitted to The University of Manchester for the degree of

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

in the Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

2014

Usman Ali

School of Mechanical, Aerospace and Civil Engineering
TABLE OF CONTENTS
TABLE OF CONTENTS ................................................................................................... 2
LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... 7
LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................. 9
ABSTRACT ..................................................................................................................... 12
DECLARATION ............................................................................................................. 13
COPYRIGHT STATEMENT .......................................................................................... 14
LIST OF PUBLICATIONS ............................................................................................. 15
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT ............................................................................................... 16
ABBREVIATIONS ......................................................................................................... 17
CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION .................................................................................... 19
1.0 Research overview ........................................................................................... 19
1.1 Research problem ............................................................................................. 21
1.2 Research aims and objectives........................................................................... 22
1.3 Research questions ........................................................................................... 23
1.4 Research hypothesis ......................................................................................... 24
1.5 Research strategy ............................................................................................. 25
1.6 Structure of the thesis ....................................................................................... 26
CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................... 29
2.0 Introduction ...................................................................................................... 29
2.1 Configuration Management (CM).................................................................... 29
2.1.1 History of CM .............................................................................................. 32
2.1.2 Elements of CM ........................................................................................... 35
2.1.3 CM in Quality perspective ........................................................................... 53
2.1.4 Management of design process with CM ..................................................... 54
2.1.5 CM impacts on customer’s support and satisfaction.................................... 55
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Table of contents
2.1.6 CM and products reliability and maintainability ......................................... 57
2.1.7 CM activity model ....................................................................................... 58
2.2 Critical success factors and related CM literature............................................ 59
2.3 Barriers to CM implementation ....................................................................... 64
2.4 Maturity models ............................................................................................... 67
2.4.1 SEI maturity models ..................................................................................... 69
2.4.2 CM Capability Model for the medical device industry ................................ 85
2.4.3 Limitation of CM related maturity models .................................................. 87
2.4.4 Research on maturity models in other allied fields ...................................... 88
2.5 Literature search strategy ................................................................................. 98
2.5.1 Keywords ..................................................................................................... 98
2.5.2 Search engines .............................................................................................. 98
2.6 Summary and conclusions ............................................................................... 99
2.6.1 Summary ...................................................................................................... 99
2.6.2 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 101
CHAPTER 3: RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODOLOGY .................................. 103
3.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 103
3.1 Research aim and objectives .......................................................................... 104
3.2 Research process ............................................................................................ 104
3.3 Research design and methodology. ................................................................ 107
3.3.1 Research philosophy .................................................................................. 107
3.3.2 Research approaches .................................................................................. 110
3.3.3 Research strategies / methods .................................................................... 117
3.3.4 Research choices ........................................................................................ 119
3.3.5 Time horizon .............................................................................................. 120
3.3.6 Data collection methods / techniques ......................................................... 121
3.3.7 The credibility of research findings ........................................................... 131
3.4 Summary ........................................................................................................ 133
CHAPTER 4: IDENTIFICATION AND ANALYSIS OF CM CSFs ........................... 135
4.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 135
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Table of contents
4.1 Research objectives ........................................................................................ 136
4.2 Research methodology ................................................................................... 137
4.3 Findings, analysis, and discussion ................................................................. 138
4.3.1 Descriptive statistics................................................................................... 138
4.3.2 Categorization of CSFs .............................................................................. 141
4.3.3 Inferential statistic ...................................................................................... 145
4.3.4 CM activity model ..................................................................................... 153
4.3.5 Interpretation of CM CSFs groups ............................................................. 155
4.4 Summary and conclusions ............................................................................. 161
4.4.1 Summary .................................................................................................... 161
4.4.2 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 162
CHAPTER 5: BARRIERS AND GOVERNANCE OF THE CM PROCESS .............. 164
5.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 164
5.1 Research objectives ........................................................................................ 165
5.2 Research methodology ................................................................................... 166
5.3 Analysis and discussion ................................................................................. 167
5.3.1 Barriers to Configuration Management implementation ........................... 167
5.3.2 Governance of the Configuration Management process ............................ 189
5.4 Summary and conclusions ............................................................................. 195
5.4.1 Barriers in the implementation of CM process .......................................... 195
5.4.2 Governance of CM Process ........................................................................ 196
CHAPTER 6: ANALYSIS OF BARRIERS TO CM IMPLEMENTATION ................ 197
6.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 197
6.1 Objectives of the research .............................................................................. 198
6.2 Research methodology ................................................................................... 198
6.3 Findings, analysis, and discussion ................................................................. 199
6.3.1 Descriptive statistics................................................................................... 199
6.3.2 Factor analysis (categorization of the barriers to CM implementation) .... 203
6.3.3 Inferential statistic ...................................................................................... 209
6.3.4 Interpretation of CM barriers groups ......................................................... 216
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Table of contents
6.4 Summary and conclusions ............................................................................. 223
6.4.1 Summary .................................................................................................... 223
6.4.2 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 224
CHAPTER 7: CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT MATURITY MODEL ............ 227
7.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 227
7.1 Research Objective......................................................................................... 228
7.2 Research Methodology................................................................................... 229
7.3 Configuration Management Maturity Model ................................................. 230
7.3.1 Identification of key process capabilities ................................................... 231
7.3.2 Establishing goals ...................................................................................... 233
7.3.3 Composition of CMMM ............................................................................ 233
7.3.4 Key focus areas of CMMM........................................................................ 238
7.3.5 Measuring the level of maturity ................................................................. 239
7.4 Validation of CMMM .................................................................................... 249
7.5 CM process maturity ...................................................................................... 256
7.5.1 Level of maturity of Configuration Management practices ....................... 256
7.5.2 Hypothesis validation ................................................................................. 258
7.6 Summary and conclusions ............................................................................. 260
7.6.1 Summary .................................................................................................... 260
7.6.2 Conclusions ................................................................................................ 261
CHAPTER 8: SUMMARY, CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS .......... 263
8.0 Introduction .................................................................................................... 263
8.1 Summary of the research ................................................................................ 263
8.2 Conclusions .................................................................................................... 267
8.2.1 CSFs for the effective implementation of Configuration Management ..... 268
8.2.2 Barriers to Configuration Management implementation ........................... 269
8.2.3 Governance of the Configuration Management process ............................ 271
8.2.4 Configuration Management Maturity Model ............................................. 271
8.3 Limitations of the study ................................................................................. 273
8.4 Contribution of this research .......................................................................... 273
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Table of contents
8.4.1 Academic perspective ................................................................................ 274
8.4.2 Industrial perspective ................................................................................. 276
8.5 Research application ...................................................................................... 277
8.6 Recommendations and further research ......................................................... 278
REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 280
Appendix A .................................................................................................................... 296
Appendix B .................................................................................................................... 305
Appendix C .................................................................................................................... 308
Appendix D .................................................................................................................... 315
Appendix E .................................................................................................................... 318
Appendix F ..................................................................................................................... 324

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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1-1: The CM Process Ladder (Watt, 2010) .......................................................... 20
Figure 2-1: Configuration Management defined (Watt, 2008; Watt, 2010) .................... 30
Figure 2-2: Configuration Management process model (MIL-HDBK-61, 1997)............ 37
Figure 2-3: Configuration Management identification (MIL-HDBK-61, 1997) ............. 40
Figure 2-4: Detail of baselines (MIL-HDBK-61, 1997) .................................................. 44
Figure 2-5: Product generic phases and baselines (Robert, 2004) ................................... 44
Figure 2-6: Product development cycle (Samaras, 1988) ................................................ 45
Figure 2-7: Life cycle of MoD project (Lester, 2007) ..................................................... 46
Figure 2-8: Simple Change Process (Rowell et al., 2009) ............................................... 48
Figure 2-9: Principles of Change Management System (Ibbs et al., 2001) ..................... 49
Figure 2-10: Statistics of research on members of CCB (Huang and Mak, 1999) .......... 50
Figure 2-11 : Lack of control and its impact on cost (Boznak, 1990a) ............................ 57
Figure 2-12: History of CMMs (Team, 2006) ................................................................. 71
Figure 2-13 : Five levels of SW-CMM (Paulk, Curtis et al. 1993) .................................. 72
Figure 2-14: SE-CMM Model architecture (Bate et al., 1995) ........................................ 77
Figure 2-15 : Improvement path for process capability (Bate et al., 1995) ..................... 77
Figure 2-16: Capability level-1 engineering (Bate et al., 1995) ...................................... 79
Figure 2-17: Capability level-2 engineering (Bate et al., 1995) ...................................... 80
Figure 2-18: Capability level-3 engineering (Bate et al., 1995) ...................................... 80
Figure 2-19: Capability level-4 engineering (Bate et al., 1995) ...................................... 80
Figure 2-20: Capability level-5 engineering (Bate et al., 1995) ...................................... 81
Figure 2-21 : Maturity levels of CoPS-RM-CMM (Yeo and Ren, 2009) ........................ 91
Figure 2-22: The four levels of risk maturity (Hillson, 1997) ......................................... 92
Figure 2-23: (PM) 2 model (Kwak and Ibbs, 2006) ......................................................... 94
Figure 2-24: Project Management Maturity Model (Crawford, 2006) ............................ 97
Figure 3-1: The research onion (Saunders et al., 2009) ................................................. 103
Figure 3-2: Research process flowchart ......................................................................... 106
Figure 3-3: Population, sample, and individual cases (Saunders et al., 2003) ............... 127
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List of figures
Figure 3-4: Sampling techniques (Saunders et al., 2003). ............................................. 128
Figure 4-1: Details of CSFs groups ................................................................................ 143
Figure 4-2: Configuration Management Activity Model ............................................... 155
Figure 6-1: Screeplot, total variance associated with each barrier ................................. 204
Figure 6-2: Three groups of barriers to CM implementation ......................................... 206
Figure 7-1: Configuration Management process capabilities ........................................ 232
Figure 7-2: Configuration Management Maturity Model .............................................. 234
Figure 7-3: Experience of research participants under different categories .................. 251
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LIST OF TABLES

Table 2-1: CM success factors (areas of importance) ...................................................... 61
Table 2-2: PM CSFs identified across 63 publications (Fortune and White, 2006) ........ 62
Table 2-3: List of PM CSFs (Belassi and Tukel, 1996) ................................................... 63
Table 2-4: List of PM CSFs (Belassi and Tukel, 1996) ................................................... 64
Table 2-5: List of key process areas of SW-CMM (Paulk et al., 1993) ........................... 74
Table 2-6: Capability levels with their common features (Bate et al., 1995) .................. 78
Table 2-7: SE-CMM Process Categories and Process Areas (Bate et al., 1995) ............. 79
Table 2-8 : Details of process areas (TEAM, 2006) ........................................................ 84
Table 2-9 : Capability and maturity levels (TEAM, 2006) .............................................. 85
Table 2-10 : Comparison of CM activities in Medical Device Industry and CMMI
(McCaffery et al., 2008) ................................................................................................... 86
Table 2-11: Maturity stage dimension (Niazi et al., 2005) .............................................. 90
Table 2-12: Critical Success Factors dimension (Niazi et al., 2005) ............................... 90
Table 2-13: Capability Areas of CoPS-RM-CMM (Yeo and Ren, 2009) ....................... 91
Table 2-14: Key PM Processes of (PM) 2 model (Kwak and Ibbs, 2006) ....................... 95
Table 2-15: Major organizational characteristics of (PM) 2 model (Kwak and Ibbs, 2006)
.......................................................................................................................................... 95
Table 2-16: Key focus areas of (PM) 2 model (Kwak and Ibbs, 2006) ............................ 96
Table 3-1: Alternative terms for positivist and phenomenological paradigms (Mangan et
al., 2004)......................................................................................................................... 108
Table 3-2: Key features of the positivist and phenomenological paradigms (Easterby-
Smith et al., 1991). ......................................................................................................... 109
Table 3-3: Classification of the main types of research (Hussey and Hussey, 1997) .... 111
Table 3-4: Differences between deductive and inductive approaches (Saunders et al.,
2003) .............................................................................................................................. 115
Table 3-5: Differences between qualitative and quantitative methods (Ghauri and
Gronhaug, 2005) ............................................................................................................ 116
Table 4-1: List of Critical Success Factors .................................................................... 140
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List of tables
Table 4-2: Correlation matrix......................................................................................... 142
Table 4-3: Total variance ............................................................................................... 144
Table 4-4: Parallel analysis ............................................................................................ 144
Table 4-5: Comparison of actual eigenvalues with corresponding criterion values ...... 145
Table 4-6: Test of normality .......................................................................................... 148
Table 4-7: Significance of CSFs with academic qualification ....................................... 149
Table 4-8: Mean Rank for academic qualification ......................................................... 149
Table 4-9: Significance of CSFs with CM certification / training ................................. 150
Table 4-10: Mean ranks for CM training ....................................................................... 151
Table 4-11: Significance of CSFs with experience in CM ............................................ 151
Table 4-12: Mean ranks for CM experience .................................................................. 152
Table 4-13: Significance of CSFs with experience in Stakeholder Departments .......... 152
Table 4-14: Mean ranks for experience in stakeholder departments ............................. 153
Table 6-1: Barriers to CM implementation .................................................................... 202
Table 6-2: KMO and Bartlett's Test results ................................................................... 203
Table 6-3: Total Variance Explained ............................................................................. 205
Table 6-4: Correlation matrix for CM barriers .............................................................. 207
Table 6-5: Group of matrix after Varimax rotation ....................................................... 208
Table 6-6: Final statistics of principle component analysis ........................................... 208
Table 6-7: Test of normality .......................................................................................... 211
Table 6-8: Significance of barriers to CM implementation with academic qualification
........................................................................................................................................ 212
Table 6-9: Mean Rank for academic qualification ......................................................... 213
Table 6-10: Significance of barriers to CM implementation with gender differences .. 213
Table 6-11: Mean Rank for gender differences ............................................................. 214
Table 6-12: Significance of barriers to CM implementation with CM experience........ 214
Table 6-13: Mean Rank for CM experience .................................................................. 215
Table 6-14: Significance of barriers to CM implementation with organizational types 215
Table 6-15: Mean Rank for organizational types ........................................................... 216
Table 7-1: Five point scale in three groups .................................................................... 250
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