CMO3 (configuration management office configuration management organization)

CMO3 is an abbreviation listed in NATO's glossary of acronyms and abbreviations. It expands to configuration management office or configuration management organization. The glossary gives the French equivalents as bureau de gestion de la configuration and organisation de gestion de la configuration.

In plain terms, the abbreviation names the office or organization responsible for configuration management. That work covers identifying, controlling, documenting and tracking configuration items, along with any changes made to them. The entry sits in the NATO Standardization Glossary of Abbreviations, published as AAP-15.

Where the CMO3 abbreviation is recorded

The entry appears in AAP-15 with the source designation NASG, for NATO Standardization Glossary. NATO's wider terminology work is maintained by the NATO Terminology Office, which is part of the NATO Standardization Office. Its NATOTerm database provides NATO terminology in English and French, the Alliance's two official languages.

What configuration management covers in Canadian government guidance

The Canadian Centre for Cyber Security publishes configuration management guidance that addresses the management and control of system components, including hardware, software and configuration items. It also covers configuration policies and change control. Proposed changes are reviewed and approved or rejected, decisions are documented, approved changes are implemented, and change records are retained.

Government of Canada information management guidance describes the same discipline in IT infrastructure terms. Significant infrastructure components are identified and recorded in a configuration management database, and those records are treated as government information resources.

Terms that appear alongside CMO3

• CM: configuration management.
• CMDB: configuration management database. Both terms are listed in the Government of Canada's IT glossary.
• Configuration item (CI): a managed component whose identity, status or changes are controlled within configuration management.
• Configuration Control Board (CCB): a body that reviews and approves proposed configuration changes. The Cyber Centre's security control catalogue is the Canadian reference for configuration change processes of this kind.

How NATO's NCI Agency applies configuration management

NATO's NCI Agency shows what a configuration management function looks like in an enterprise IT setting. Its published job material refers to configuration management governance, an enterprise configuration management system, a corporate CMDB, configuration item tracking and configuration audits. That material does not name the responsible function CMO3, so the abbreviation should be read as a glossary term and not as a fixed organizational title.

What CMO3 means for a supplier bidding on Canadian public contracts

Canadian federal guidance describes configuration management in detail, but it does not use the abbreviation CMO3. A supplier should not assume from the abbreviation alone that a Canadian buyer requires a dedicated configuration management office or organization.

Any such obligation has to be stated in the solicitation itself. Check the statement of work, the configuration management plan requirements, contract data requirements, referenced technical standards and change control clauses. If a NATO-linked or defence tender uses CMO3, read it as a configuration management office or organization and confirm the expected roles, records and approval steps with the buyer during the question period.