{"id":51,"date":"2025-07-01T11:19:44","date_gmt":"2025-07-01T09:19:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.engineering-universe.de\/?page_id=51"},"modified":"2025-12-11T17:01:18","modified_gmt":"2025-12-11T16:01:18","slug":"variantenmanagement","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.engineering-universe.de\/en\/engineering-disziplinen\/variantenmanagement\/","title":{"rendered":"Variant Management"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Configuration and variant management<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Mastering multiplicity \u2013 and preserving the digital thread<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

In today's world, products are rarely available in just one version. Different markets, customer requirements, technical platforms, and innovations lead to a multitude of versions and variants.<\/p>

Configuration and variant management<\/strong> keeps this variety structured\u2014across all disciplines, development stages, and versions. It is the systematic process of managing and controlling changes to requirements, design elements, software, hardware, and IT infrastructures with the objective of ensuring consistency, traceability, and stability with regard to changes and assuring complete reproducibility of the product in its variants and versions. Ideally, configuration and variant management spans the context across all domains and engineering disciplines involved in the development, production, and service of a system and also takes into account the correct assignment of development artifacts across variants and versions.<\/p>

This makes configuration and variant management a key prerequisite for the digital thread \u2013 the digital thread that connects all artifacts of a product throughout its entire lifecycle.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Configuration and variant management in the Digital Thread context<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

This capability is the methodological basis for the digital thread. This capability is the foundational methodology for the digital thread. Various characteristics of a product must be monitored consistently and reproducibly. To maintain this control across all disciplines involved, global configuration and variant management<\/strong> is required.<\/p>

This method describes the ability to link artifacts from all disciplines involved in the project \u2013 such as requirements, models, test cases, or documentation \u2013 and thus establish the digital context. It is the tool that reveals which artifacts actually belong together in which variant<\/strong> and what dependencies exist, for example, when artifacts are shared across variants.<\/p>

The technical prerequisite for the digital thread is the ability to address single artifacts individually and uniquely, as facilitated, for example, by the OSLC<\/strong> standard (OSLC \u2013 Open Services for Lifecycle Collaboration).<\/p>

The interaction between global configuration management and OSLC creates a continuous digital thread:<\/strong>
A common thread that links all versions, variants, changes, and dependencies across all lifecycle disciplines \u2013 from requirements and models to testing and release.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t

\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\"\"\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t

Why configuration and variant management is crucial<\/h3>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t
\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t

Without configuration and variant management, including the ability to manage global configurations, a development organization can quickly lose track of versions, statuses, and dependencies. Teams work in parallel on different variants or versions. If engineering artifacts and their dependencies are maintained manually, inconsistencies can quickly arise between requirements, models, and tests.<\/p>

Well-designed configuration and variant management establishes structure and efficiency. It facilitates:<\/p>