Dear recruitment agencies (and their clients for that matter)…
… please, please, please, use the correct title for your job adverts. It’s not that difficult. Change managers are not the same as configuration managers. Build managers are not the same as release managers.
I know it can be hard sometimes, especially when the role you want covers a wide set of disciplines, but at least make the effort to understand what you are asking for.
A change manager, unsurprisingly, manages change. They may be technical or non-techincal change managers, but their primary function is to ensure that a defined process for managing change requests from inception to completion are established and followed. The change manager is also often the final arbiter of a change’s suitability, but this is not so common as it ought be.
A configuration manager is responsible for establishing and maintaining the configuration management system. This covers a wide range of technologies, but the role is essentially the same. Define and ensure adherence to the configuration management process. The purpose of this process is to maintain the integrity of configuration data (simplistically, the items under control and their relationships to one another). The configuration manager will liaise the change, build, release, deployment, operations and project managers to achieve this goal but does not perform these roles (despite the annoying tendency of people to attempt to define the role as such).
A build manager transforms source into product. That source may be code, documentation, or any number of other things. Product is that which is delivered and may be software, hardware, firmware and so on. Product may be a document pack, installation package, a single file or a set of files according to the needs of the project and organisation..
A release manager is responsible for the management of the product through from development into operation. They are not responsible for physical deployment. This is performed by the deployment management team (sometimes operations, sometimes test teams, sometimes another dedicated function).
See? Simple isn’t it. If your role covers more than one of these functions then advertise it as such and note what balance of each discipline is required and to what extent the role is operational or technical.
Loved the post, you wouldn’t have thought it was a difficult thing to do but I think one of the things that some recruitment agencies are guilty of is just taking the brief from the client (if there is one) and just running with it without even questioning whether the organisation’s internal title for a role is actually applicable to the outside market. To be honest, they can carry on making those mistakes because the ones that do bother to really understand the job win more business.