Place designated work products of the process under appropriate levels of control.

The purpose of this generic practice is to establish and maintain the integrity of the designated work products of the process (or their descriptions) throughout their useful life.

The designated work products are specifically identified in the plan for performing the process, along with a specification of the appropriate level of control.

Different levels of control are appropriate for different work products and for different points in time. For some work products, it may be sufficient to maintain version control (i.e., the version of the work product in use at a given time, past or present, is known, and changes are incorporated in a controlled manner). Version control is usually under the sole control of the work product owner (which may be an individual, a group, or a team).

Sometimes, it may be critical that work products be placed under formal or baseline configuration management. This type of control includes defining and establishing baselines at predetermined points. These baselines are formally reviewed and agreed on, and serve as the basis for further development of the designated work products.

Refer to the Configuration Management process area for more information about placing work products under configuration management.

Additional levels of control between version control and formal configuration management are possible. An identified work product may be under various levels of control at different points in time.