The design changes involve the change of scope, thus become the major source of risks for construction projects. An improper change control system usually result in schedule delays, cost overruns, and numerous disputes that cause the failure of the project. The paper reviews the theory of the configuration management from literature and proposes a construction design change management model for construction projects. A public construction project is selected for case study to investigate the difference between the change control in the current practice and the configuration management. Based on the observations and data collection of the case project in the past three years, the critical management issues for the implementation of configuration management in a construction project are summarized and provided to the construction practitioners as a guideline for implementation of configuration management.