We use Change Management to standardize our methods and procedures for dealing with changes and thereby reducing risk and disruption. We record all changes to assets or confirmation items in the Configuration Management System. This allows us to define and agree on those changes and ensure that only people who have the appropriate authority can make changes. The Service Portfolio defines all services (current, planned and retired) which we can use to evaluate the impact of a particular change.
Interaction and communication are key elements of ITIL, and using Service Transition we want to open ourselves up to change, because at the end of the day,
controlled change is good. Not many people like change but the central message from ITIL is that constant realignment is for the better.
Generally, as a change comes in we:- Record it
- Evaluate it
- Prioritize it
- Plan it
- Test it
- Finally, implement it
Remember, changes happen all the time and they generally fit into two groups, the good and the bad! Proactive is that loving feeling that makes us think 'outside of the box' to achieve something better. Reactive is where something usually goes wrong and we need to correct it.
- Proactively - e.g. Business is looking to improve service or reduce costs
- Reactively - e.g. responding to errors or mistakes
When a request for Change is raised via the Change Management process, we design and govern the new release package around that particular requirement. This provides us with a history of changes to the service (traceability) and also tight control over our release cycles. It's important that changes are clearly defined and internal and external changes are separated appropriately. Remember, that not all requests for change will be implemented. In fact, unless there is a clear business case for the change we won't undertake the work. In a similar fashion, late requests for change usually carry a high risk and unless they can be properly managed we won't undertake them either. If the change is identified as an operational change, e.g. printer repair, then the change lies outside of scope and is not included.
ITIL defines Service change as:
"The addition, modification or removal of authorized, planned or supported service or service component and its associate documentation"So the key points are:- We want to reduce risk
- Minimize the impact and disruption
- Only have to do the change once (so lets get it right!)
To ensure that changes are dealt with in an effective manner we use well known methods and procedures. This cuts down on re-work and incidents that might affect business continuity. Assessment of the change is always the first step, that change list needs to be cut down to the actual changes which we will proceed with.
See also- Change Management template