Final answer:
Configuration management primarily focuses on controlling changes to software and hardware to maintain system integrity throughout its life cycle. It involves various functions including the identification and control of configuration items, status accounting, and configuration audits. Other tasks like ensuring hardware compatibility and monitoring network traffic are not its main purpose.
Step-by-step explanation:
The main purpose of configuration management in the context of IT and systems engineering is b) Controlling changes to software and hardware. Configuration management is a process for maintaining the consistency of a product's performance, functional, and physical attributes with its requirements, design, and operational information throughout its life. It helps in systematically managing changes to ensure that a system maintains its integrity over time. Tasks such as ensuring hardware compatibility, managing user accounts, and monitoring network traffic are also important within the schema of IT, but they are not the central focus of configuration management. The main functions of configuration management include the identification of configuration items, control of configuration changes, status accounting, and configuration audits. This discipline is critical for establishing a well-disciplined environment for managing changes, thus enabling teams to efficiently and accurately track the evolution of systems with minimal confusion or error.