Baris Kocabaşoğlu, Chair

I was born into it, so to speak, since my career started as a Configuration Manager Engineer in aerospace and defence. This was indeed a great place to learn and grow for me because back in the day, Configuration Management was much more established in these industries. So, I learned from the best and came to love this great challenge of practical perfection we call Configuration Management.

Training regarding Configuration Management is notoriously lacking. So, when I discovered there were these series of courses that were ONLY about CM, I was very much intrigued. Having had the opportunity to attend the first course I knew immediately that CM2 is the next evolution of CM based practices.

I have come to believe that CM on its own fails to deliver the value that it promises because CM discipline in a company depends not only on the efforts of CM professionals but also on the collective awareness and willingness of everyone to “do the right thing”. CM2 not only starts by establishing this fact on a very solid foundation but also offers real, practical and efficient methods to keep all information “clear, concise and valid”. 

A Configuration Management Engineer has many hats to wear for a successful and fulfilling career. At this point in my career the skill I am working on is enterprise-wide change management. This difficult yet precious endeavor requires not only a very solid grasp of CM2 principles but also skills in communication, empathy, mediation, and project management to name a few. 

That I am an avid gamer! I play a lot of real time and turn based strategy games not only virtually but on the very table itself in the form of boardgames and role-playing games.

When I am not painting miniatures and crafting mini terrain pieces for the above-mentioned games, I love taking long walks in the woods with my dog, Frodo.