Making project status visible in complex aerospace projects

Establishing project status for large, complex projects is a key concern; particularly so in the aerospace industry where projects are about as complex as they get in modern industry. In practice, project “visibility” lies at the intersection of two disciplines, that of Project Management (PM) and Configuration Management (CM). While project visibility has received a fair amount of attention from the standpoint of PM, its CM counterpart, configuration status accounting (CSA), is not so well explored. The research reported here examines how CSA is carried out in the European aerospace industry where the application of CM is crucial given the safety-critical nature of the products. Through questionnaire survey and case study the research shows limited use of CSA data until the product gets close to release to the customer thus restricting the effectiveness of CM support to project management activities.