Projects supported by culturally and geographically diverse teams need robust tools that achieve scientific and technical deliverables through real-time collaboration and effective document management. Given limited resources, the optimal mix of tools is cost-effective, succinct, flexible, and intuitive. It enables all phases of the project, and it facilitates the creation of a comprehensive set of documentation to support science operations. The Maunakea Spectroscopic Explorer (MSE) is an international project with scientists and engineers working in different time zones across the world. MSE’s unified approach to project control and facilitation integrates the software platforms, manual processes, and project management tools used to develop project deliverables, which include a detailed set of configurable documents representing the project’s programmatic, scientific, and technical performance objectives. MSE’s Configuration Management and Reviews Plan (CMRP) defines those documents and describes the mechanisms by which the project controls their quality and integrity. Those mechanisms include MSE’s configuration management processes as well as the tools supporting those processes: software for collaboration, documentation, and project management; the MSE document naming and numbering system; the document index lists and version control process that trace the deliverables’ development throughout the life of the project; and project management tools, including a responsibility assignment matrix and document approval and release processes.
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