What is involved in configuration management?

Configuration management is a critical practice within ITIL that focuses on maintaining and managing the information related to configuration items (CIs) throughout their lifecycle. This practice involves creating and maintaining accurate records of what those CIs are, their attributes, relationships to one another, and the current state of each item.

By maintaining this information, organizations can gain insight into their IT infrastructure and ensure that any changes made are properly tracked and documented. This contributes significantly to effective change management, problem resolution, and overall service management by providing a clear view of the components that make up the IT services.

The other options involve different aspects of IT management. Creating new software applications is a development activity rather than a configuration management function. Reducing operational hours concerns service efficiency and cost management but does not focus on maintaining configuration records. Implementing staff training programs relates to skill development and human resource management rather than the specific maintenance and oversight of configuration items within ITIL practices. Thus, the focus on maintaining information about configuration items accurately represents the essence of configuration management.