CMII is a set of best practices for configuration management, authored by The Institute of Configuration Management www.icmhq.com
Development of the CMII principles began in 1970's by Vince Guess as a set of good CM practices and processes. It has evolved into a set of standards and best practices for configuration management, requirements management, change management, release management, data management, asset management, risk management, records management, project management, document control, library control, and quality assurance. The CMII name was adopted in 1988.
The ICM offers a text book, many white papers and a curriculum of CMII training classes that are offered at world-wide locations. CMII White Papers:
The training results in a CMII Certification for the configuration management professional. Over 6,000 grads in over 750 organizations in over 30 countries now hold CMII certification. The CMII methodologys primary benefit is that it creates a common language for CM, facilitating good communictions between CM professionals, and an advancement of the "Art of CM". The community of CMII certified professionals meet annually at a conference to discuss case studies, real-work scenarios, and to build on the CMII knowledge base.
Many, if not most, organizations have made the mistake of buying software tools and then trying to mold their processes to fit the tools. Tools designed by IT experts rarely satisfy the needs of process experts. Processes must lead and tools must enable. Until recent years, the limitations of enabling software tools have been the biggest obstacle to successful CMII implementations. Final decisions on tool purchases should be made by a cross-functional team of CMII grads. IT departments should never be allowed to dictate those decisions. By the year 2000, CMII had already been adopted worldwide as the best CM practice, but enabling software tools were still "IT oriented." They lacked CMII functionality and were not user-friendly. ICM began assessing software tools in 2000 and awarding certification to those that could demonstrate CMII-compliant functionality. Aras Corp's Aras Innovator is an off-the-shelf PLM-type tool providing CMII functionality that is truly robust.