Managing Change Requests

Introduction

Change management helps to deploy new changes without any disruption or downtime. ITIL Change management follows a standard operating procedure to eliminate any unintended interruptions and capture necessary details about a change before it is implemented such as reason for the change, planning, and approval.

Change management works closely with Incident management, problem management, configuration management to manage infrastructure and Configuration Items(CIs) that are affected or going through the change.

Change requests typically originate from one of the following sources:

• Problem reports that identify bugs to be fixed
• System enhancement requests from end users
• Changes in underlying structure and or standards

Change assessment

Change assessment committee evaluates submitted RFC and suggests necessary changes that would be taken care by Change initiator. This is followed by Change planning that follows a standard procedure and it includes activities such as

• Prioritizing a change - After analyzing the reasons and RFC, prioritize change request and determine change type depending on the risk/impact
• Scheduling a change - Depending on the priority, scheduling is fixed.
  • Decide on the planned start date and end date.
  • Ensure there is no clash with other major activities that are scheduled
• Roll out plan details about implementation steps and approach
• Identifying stakeholders - Identifies the project members who are responsible for carrying out the implementation and members who need to approve

Change approval

Approval process flow is decided depending on the type of change. For example, major change requires approval from Change Approval Group and management whereas standard change does not require any Change Approval Group approval as they are pre-approved. Change request is approved only if all the Change Approval Group users approve it. Upon rejection, reassessment review is done and submitted again for approval.

Change implementation

Change Implementation includes activities such as:

• Change Plan: Once the change is approved, implementation is carried out with the help of Release management team.
• Test Plan: Release team follows their own processes that include planning and testing.
• Rollback Plan: If the change fails, plan to restore services to the previous version is carried out.

Configuring change request settings

Customize change details by creating custom fields in addition to the predefined fields.

To configure change request settings:

1. Go to Setup > Service Desk > Settings.
2. Select the Change Request tab and configure the settings.
3. Click Update.

To make the settings apply to all users within the client, select Client. When NO client is selected, the chosen settings apply to all clients within the partner. Configure the Change Approval Group from User groups created for the organization.

Creating change requests

Change requests can be created using:

• Service Desk
• email

Creating change requests on Service Desk

To create a new change request on Service Desk:

1. Select Service Desk from the drop-down menu.
2. Click + and click Change.
3. On the New Change Request page, provide the required information.
4. Click Create.

Supported fields

Creating change requests through email

To install a new email integration:

1. Go to Setup > Integrations > Integrations.
2. On the Available Integrations, click Email Requests.
3. On  Install Email Requests Integrations window, provide a name of the Integration, select the Request Type as Change, upload an Image file if required and click Install. The new email integration appears on the Email Requests Integration page.
4. Click the copy icon in Incoming Email Address.
5. While composing Change Request email,  provide the following in the email fields:
   • To: Incoming Email Address
     • Subject: Change Request subject
     • Email Body: Description of Change Request

Viewing change requests

Editing change requests

To edit a change request:

1. Click Service Desk
2. Click a Change Request. Change Request details page appears.
3. Click the Edit button and edit the required fields.

To edit multiple change requests:

1. Click Service Desk.
2. Click the bulk update button and select the number of change requests to be edited.
3. Select Apply Actions option. Update Actions window appears.
4. Select the required changes and click Update.

Closing change requests

Configure auto-close policies to close change requests that are resolved and that are in inactive state since a certain elapsed time.

To add an auto-close policy:

1. Go to Setup > Service Desk > Automation section > Auto Close Policies.
2. Select a client and click Auto Close Change Requests.
3. Provide the following:
   • Name: Name of the Auto-Close policy
   • Resolved Tickets Above: The inactive period of a resolved Change Request beyond which the change request needs to be closed.
4. Click Submit.