Questions You Need to Ask About Your Change Management Process
When implementing a Change Management process, I often encounter the belief that simply selecting a service management toolset will magically instil service management discipline within an organisation. While a great toolset can certainly help you communicate more efficiently with your colleagues, it doesn’t inherently solve the core process challenges. What’s most important is knowing what you want to communicate about in the first place. Without clarity, even the best tool won’t deliver the expected benefits.
To get the most out of your Change Management process, here are eight critical questions that every organisation needs to ask. No toolset will answer these questions for you, but once decisions are made, the toolset can ensure smooth execution of the agreed processes.
1. What is the goal of Change Management?
If you don’t know the purpose of the process, how can you ensure you’re doing it right? This question is essential for producing coherent reports and demonstrating value.
Suggested answer:
The objective of Change Management is to ensure that standardized methods and techniques are used to efficiently and promptly handle all changes. This enables beneficial changes with minimal disruption to services.
2. What is the definition of a change for IT services?
This is fundamental. If there’s no clear definition of what constitutes a change, how can IT staff know when to engage with the process?
Suggested answer:
“Any addition, modification, removal, or maintenance on an in-scope item or its monitoring.” Note that a ‘break-fix’ (i.e., incident resolution) requires a change if it impacts an in-scope item.
3. What is the scope of Change Management?
Clearly defining the scope is critical. Without this, people won’t know when they should engage with Change Management and when to use another process.
Suggested answer:
Any controlled environment and supporting infrastructure are under change control.
- Shared infrastructure, network kits, and software supporting any controlled environment fall under change control.
- Supporting infrastructure includes management and monitoring tools.
- ITSM processes are also under change control.
Exclusions:
Changes affecting fewer than 20 standard PCs or phones are considered out of scope. At the discretion of the Change Manager, any change may be brought into scope.
4. How will Change Management occur between in-scope and out-of-scope areas?
How will your change process interact with third-party suppliers?
Suggested answer:
Out-of-scope parties (e.g., third-party suppliers) may attend CAB meetings as guests, without voting rights. They may receive the Forward Schedule of Change (FSC) and Projected Service Outage (PSA/O) as part of the regular process. In cases where a change affects them, they may be invited to attend the CAB with voting rights.
5. What is the definition of an Emergency Change?
If you don’t define what constitutes an emergency change, expect every change to be treated as an emergency.
Suggested answer:
An emergency change meets all of the following criteria:
- The change is unplanned and unforeseen.
- It has a business-critical impact and is necessary to prevent further disruption to a controlled environment.
- It is required for security reasons due to a current significant threat, compliance, or incident resolution.
- The change is significant or major and requires approval before the next CAB meeting.
6. What ‘special powers’ does an Emergency Change have?
Once a change is marked as an emergency, what happens next?
Suggested answer:
Emergency changes will be implemented as soon as possible, and change approval or authorization can be verbal. The associated documentation must be completed within one working day. Testing or back-out plans may be waived, but the change must undergo a post-implementation review.
7. How many times will you authorise a change (to build and to implement)?
Does your process require early approval in the lifecycle, or do you authorize changes only before implementation?
Suggested answer:
For minor changes, approval is required once—prior to release.
For significant changes, the CAB must review them at least once and may request a second review for final authorization.
8. How often will your CAB meet, and how will it operate?
This meeting is crucial for Service and Change Management. How often will you meet, and what are your operating guidelines?
Suggested answer:
- CAB meetings will occur weekly, lasting no more than one hour.
- The agenda will be sent out the day before.
- Key activities include a Monday cut-off for new RFCs, with meetings held on Wednesdays. Minutes and the FSC/PSA will be disseminated by Wednesday evening.
Conclusion:
No toolset can answer these critical questions for your organization. To get the most value from your ITSM implementation, you must first address these foundational issues. Once you’ve answered them, your toolset can ensure a smooth and efficient process that staff can easily follow.