ITIL - Service Transition Part 2

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Hello,
I'm doing the Transcender practice exams for ITIL Foundation and came across the following question and explanation:

*Which of the following are considered examples of Configuration Items (CIs)?

Applications
Hardware
Contracts
Personnel

options 1, 2, and 3 only
options 1, 2, and 4 only
option 1 and 2 only
All of the options are correct

******* Explanation:
All of the given options are considered examples of Configuration Items (CIs). A CI is defined as any asset or component that is under the control of Configuration Management.

Other items that can be considered CIs include software, network infrastructure, and anything that is required to provide a service.

CIs have attributes. Attributes are qualities of a CI that can be used to help differentiate it. Valid attributes of a hardware CI include the supplier's part number, the cost of the item, and a manufacturer's serial number.

To record relationships between CIs, you could assess the impact and cause of incidents and problems, assess the impact of proposed change, plan and design a change to an existing service, and plan a technology refresh or software upgrade.

Objective:
Generic concepts and definitions
Sub-Objective:
Configuration item (CI)
References:
Foundations of IT Service Management with ITIL 2011, Service Transition Processes, Service Asset and Configuration Management, Key Concepts, pp. 199-202*

However the episode seems to contradict this:

"So remember how I said there's some things that you can't configure.So let's say, Ronnie, that you have intimate knowledge of our web server,right, and something that you're an expert on, that you know, and I want to have youinvolved in this service transition because I know you are the expert.Can I configure you?>> No. >> Not really right?So you are a true asset.But if you're working on a server and the server can be configured,we identify that way by calling it a CI, a configuration item."

Could you provide some clarification?

Thanks

The ITIL books are priced well above my budget, so I can't refer to them. But the notes for the ITIL course I took back in 2008 specifically include "people" as an example of a CI. It's possible that this changed in ITIL 2011, but I doubt it. You don't "configure" people in the same sense you configure a computer, but you do need to manage the people are involved in supporting your service and most commercial Configuration Management Systems support this.

That said, I've never been to a CAB meeting where personnel changes have been on the docket! People are not managed the same way as IT assets. So it is definitely confusing.

I’m not sure about this but if a person or a job description is listed as part of a service I wonder if that would count as a configuration item.

For example if the position Basis Administrator for SAP is part of the SAP service would that get included in the Change Management DB? A Basis Administrator would be needed to make certain changes to the SAP service.

Thanks for information Rick & Art.

A little further digging found the following definition of a CI:
"Any component or other service asset that needs to be managed in order to
deliver an IT service. Information about each configuration item is recorded in a configuration record within
the configuration management system and is
maintained throughout its lifecycle by service asset and
configuration management. Configuration items are under the control of change management. They
typically include IT services, hardware, software, buildings, people and formal documentation such as
pr
ocess documentation and service level agreements."
https://www.axelos.com/Corporate/media/Files/Glossaries/ITIL_2011_Glossary_GB-v1-0.pdf

Hopefully someone is able to make sure I just didn't miss-understand what was said in the episode, or adds a correction if needed as it certainly confused me.