To accommodate projects that can range in complexity from simple pieces of laboratory equipment to fully qualified space flight hardware, CE has developed and implemented a range of configuration management procedures that have been specifically designed to provide for varying levels of configuration control. As a minimum, all original engineering documentation is required to conform to a uniform numbering and change order system. Drawings also conform to all required military standards and relevant NASA requirements, and are archived in fully protected electronic libraries that are backed up frequently.

Projects with contractually mandated requirements for formal configuration management--such as NASA flight hardware projects--may elect either to form their own configuration management team within their Program Office, or to request that this support be provided by CE. In the latter case, CE would impose the provisions of its formal Configuration Management (CM) Plan, which has been written in accordance with MM 8040.12 Exhibit I, the required standard for NASA flight hardware programs.

For those projects having less stringent document control requirements, CE has written and implemented an Engineering Documentation Release Control Plan (EDRCP) and associated specific procedures. The EDRCP, based upon an Issue rather than Release system of drawing control, is routinely imposed on all CE projects that do not have contractually defined configuration control requirements. In addition, in cases where projects have their own configuration management staff, the EDRCP provides a consistent controlled interface between Engineering and the project's formal configuration management system. The EDRCP and its procedures were designed to be maximally flexible in order to be tailored to individual project requirements at the request of a Principal Investigator or Program Manager. It can be adapted to provide for the significantly less stringent requirements for basic drawing control on ground-based instruments, balloon flight hardware, and smaller, in-house experiments. At all levels of implementation, the EDRCP contains procedures for Engineering Change Order (ECO) control.