Change Management
The Change management process depends on the accuracy of the configuration data to ensure the full impact of making Changes is known. There si therefore a very close relationship between Configuration Management, Release Management and Change Management.
Details of the Change process are documented in SLAs to ensure that Users know the procedure for requesting Changes and the projected target times for, and impact of the implementation of Changes.
Details of Changes need to be made known to the Service Desk. Even with comprehensive testing there is an increased likelihood of difficulties occurring following Change implementation either because the Change is not working as required or expected, or because of queries on the Change in functionality.
The Change Advisory Board (CAB) is a group of people who can give expert advise to the Change Management team on the implementation of Changes. This board is likely to be made up of representatives from all areas within IT and representatives from business units.
Change Management consists of five steps.
- Filtering Requests for Change (RFCs)
- Assessing the impact of changes
- Authorizing changes
- Reviewing Changes
- Closing RFC
The one person who is most responsible and accountable for change management is the change manager. The change manager is more of a role, depending on the size, complexity and structure of your IT organization, there may be more than one person playing the role of change manager for assisting with several activities. The change manager plays a leading role in many of the major activities of change management as follows:
- Receives and filters requests for change (RFCs) - There must be a single point of collection for RFCs. The change manager reviews new RFCs and filters out those that are impractical or duplicates of existing requests. The change manager serves as the gatekeeper to the activities of the change management process.
- Coordinates the activities of the change advisory board (CAB) - The change manager serves as leader and facilitator for the change advisory board and its emergency committee. The change manager convenes the CAB and makes sure a cross section of departments within the company is represented.
- Issues and maintains the forward schedule of changes (FSC) - The change manager is the keeper of the FSC. When the change advisory board approves changes, the change manager adds the change to the FSC and distributes it within the company.
- Closes RFCs - The authority to declare a change complete and closed should be limited to the change manager. A change should be removed from open status only when it has been verified that the change has been successfully implemented and accepted by affected users.
Other ITIL Processes
In order to have a good understanding of ITIL and the importance of configuration management, we first define what ITIL is: ITIL is literally a collection of documentation.
This documentation can help IT organizations implement the best practices. The documentation grows and grows as more successful techniques are documented and guidelines established for what can make others successful. The latest ITIL resources are published by the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC).
Integrated service delivery refers to the need for Configuration Management, Change Management, Incident Management, Problem Management and Release Management processes that are linked together in a meaningful manner. For example, the process of releasing components to the live environment (the domain of Release Management) is also an issue for Configuration Management and Change Management whilst the Service Desk is primarily responsible for liaison between IT providers and the Users of services. This section highlights the links and the principal relationships between all the Service Management and other infrastructure management processes.
ITIL processes fall under Operational Layer or Tactical Layer, as follows:
| Operational Layer: | Configuration Management - Service Desk Management - Incident & Problem Management - Change Management - Release Management |
| Tactical Layer: | Service Level Management - Availability Management - Capacity Management - Continuity Management - Financial Management |