What is ITIL Change Management?

There is more than one type of Change Management used in IT, Project Managers talk about Change Management as a process of managing changes to what a project will deliver.

ITIL Change Management is about managing the changes we make to our systems, this could include:-

• Adding a new server onto the network,
• Upgrading equipment that provides Wi-Fi,
• Decommissioning a web server as the business no longer requires the website it hosted.
• Upgrading the version of software used on a server.
• Adding new functionality to a website or system

Change Management is one of a number of processes that are described in the the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL), this describes best practices for delivering IT services.

Change Management is a process which allows IT to make changes to our systems, whilst managing the risk and impact to the services IT provide.

Changes are logged by IT Technical staff, sometimes with assistance of Project Managers who will have a clearer view of the business benefit of the change.  Requests made by customers may end up being logged as changes in order to deliver what IT has been asked, customers are not  expected however to log the change (although may have input into the business justification and timing of the change.)

How are Changes organised

There are three types of Changes.

• Standard Changes. These are low risk, low impact changes that are performed regularly.  There will be a proven set of steps in order to make the change which staff are familiar with. These changes are logged using a pre-approved template.  Only key details require updating which are unique to this instance of the standard change (for example the date of the change and the piece of equipment that is being changed.)  Standard changes will represent the vast majority of changes made by IT Staff.
• Normal Changes. These are less frequently made changes or potentially something that hasn't been done before. The Change Management team will need to read, review and approve every Normal Change. Based on the risk and impact of the change, Normal changes are furthered divided into Minor, Significant or Major.  Any changes that are Significant or Major will need additional approval from the Change Advisory Board (CAB). CAB is discussed later in this article.  By number, there will be more Minor Changes than Significant or Major
• Emergency Changes. These are changes that need to be implemented urgently as it is associated with a major interruption or degradation to a service.  These changes will need authorisation from a senior member of IT Staff. 

Change Advisory Board (CAB)

The Change Advisory Board (CAB) meet once a week to review any normal changes which have been classified as Significant or Major.  These are changes which pose a high risk and/or impact to services.  CAB members receive details of the changes to be discussed in advance, this allows them to clarify any details with those proposing the change.

As well as reviewing Significant and Major changes, CAB will also review any changes which are related to services or technologies that are in "Heightened Awareness."  A technology or service can be placed into Heightened Awareness when there has been a Major incident relating to the technology/service and IT want to have extra scrutiny on any changes which could cause further disruption to service.

Additional Information

For further details, please contact David Barker, Change Manager.