All the activity areas in configuration management share metadata for items
placed under configuration management. Metadata is a database concept that means
data about the data stored in the database. So metadata in this context
describes the configuration items. Metadata for a configuration item may include
its name, the name of the person who produced the item, the production date, and
references to other related configuration items.
Change control uses metadata�for example, the trace information for a
configuration item for which a change is suggested. Change control does not in
itself contribute to metadata, because information produced during change
control will be present only if a configuration item is affected by a suggested
change. A configuration item can exist without change control information, but
it can't exist without metadata.
