Overview
Change Management (CM) in ServiceLink provides a central location to record the tracking, planning and implementation of changes to ITS Services and their related components. This allows for increased communication across offices, services and projects.
Change Management Process
There are five steps in the Change Management process - Record & Describe the change, Plan the change, Schedule the change, Implement the change and Close the change. The activities that occur within each step may differ depending on the Change Type and/or the internal procedures of your group.
- Record & Describe a Change
The first step in implementing a change is to recored the change in ServiceLink. As much detail as possible is entered into the record, including a description of the change, the expected outcome of the change, the impacted Configuration Item, the Impact/Urgency of the change, the change type, and the Assignment Group responsible for implementing the change.
Depending on your unit's procedures, you may also need to request a date for the change and/or assign a change template. Change templates are pre-defined structures for specific changes which automatically populate fields, such as Description, Configuration Item (to the most appropriate detail level), Impact/Urgency, Change Type and Assignment Group. If multiple groups are involved in completing a change, the template may also include a workflow which automatically adds tasks associated with the change.
- Plan a Change
The majority of work on a change request happens in the Plan step. During this step, an implementation plan is determined and recorded, a test plan is determined and recorded, and a back-out/contingency plan is tested and recorded.
Depending on the type and complexity of the change, tasks related to the change may be assigned within the change record. These tasks detail the work required by an Assignment Group(s) or Individual(s) to complete the change.
- Schedule a Change
During the Schedule step, the planned start/end dates are entered. Any date/system conflicts must be determined and resolved with the appropriate teams. Changes are recorded on the ITS Service Status page at this point.
Comprehensive changes require an approval before being implemented, and Emergency changes require an approval either before being implemented, if possible, or after implementation. Assignment Groups determine who is responsible for approving requests for their group. The designated Change Approvers must be made owners of the MCommunity Group associated with the ServiceLink Assignment Group.
- Implement a Change
During the Implement step, the change is implemented, all tasks are recorded as complete, and the work start/end dates are entered. The work end time and date should be within one hour of the planned end date.
- Close a Change
During the Close step, the State field is changed to Closed Complete, Closed Incomplete, or Closed Canceled, as applicable. The change record should be closed within one hour of completing the change.
Change Types
There are three types of change requests in ServiceLink, each with their own respective processes. All changes, regardless of type, require an impact assessment, business approval, implementation plan and back-out/contingency plan.
- Routine
Changes that are relatively common, follow an established path, and are relatively low risk are considered Routine changes. These changes are scheduled and implemented as needed and are pre-approved by team management. Standard maintenance is considered a Routine change.
- Comprehensive
A Comprehensive change is one that requires more planning than a Routine change, may impact multiple teams, may pose a risk to services, and/or may require a service outage. These changes require formal approval before being implemented. System upgrades are considered Comprehensive changes.
- Emergency
Changes that need to be made immediately in response to a disruption or imminent disruption to a production service are Emergency changes. An Emergency change is planned and requires approval; however, given the urgency of Emergency changes, approval may be recorded after implementation. Emergency change requests should be kept to a minimum since they are susceptible to higher risk. A change to resolve a break/fix situation is an Emergency change.