Change Management works essentially by carrying out consistent planning,
communication, approval and scheduling of change using a repeatable process
and involving regular contributors. The
Change Management process flowchart
illustrates this.
The process can be applied to all changes including individual user requests, or it
can be applied just to major infrastructure changes that affect more than one user.
We recommend that you apply it to major changes only, and for this reason user
change requests are dealt with separately in Incident Management.
The Change Management process is enabled by a 'request for change' document
to record the change details and approvals and an optional change advisory
committee.
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Request for change*
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A request for change is completed for each change, with different
roles contributing at different stages. It provides a checklist of items to
be considered and approved before implementing a change.
See Example Request for Change in the toolkit.
As long as communication between the parties is effective and timely,
you may be able to manage changes using only the request for
change. Alternatively you may find it easier to gather approvers
together on a regular basis for the purpose of approving changes and
hold a change advisory committee meeting (see below).
Requests for change are also used as input to the Configuration
Management process to ensure that infrastructure records are kept
up to date.
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Change advisory
committee
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A change advisory committee is a regular meeting attended by key
representatives in the Change Management process. It is a forum for
the review and approval or rejection of proposed changes and change
plans and is usually minuted.
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* Not to be confused with a user request for a change to their computer or other
personal ICT facilities. This initiated using the incident/request form and its
application is described in Incident Management . The request for change form
referred to here relates to changes to shared ICT infrastructure that are initiated by
ICT staff, although these may be as a result of a user incident or request.
