Service Transition Change Management in ITIL, ITIL Course
Service Transition
Change Management
Introduction
A Change must be implemented efficiently to ensure that it provides a permanent solution to a problem, with minimum disruption to services. Changes include new services as well as current servicesthat need to be changed.
Purpose
The purpose of Change Management is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for controlled, efficient and prompthandling of all Changes, in order to minimize the impact of change-related incidents upon service quality.
Change Managementresponds to the business and IT Requests for Change that will align the services with the business needs.
The Change Management process aims at providing themanaged and controlled environment that the currentbusiness requires.
Service Transition Change Management in ITIL, ITIL Course
Objectives
The objectives of change management are to:
• Respond to the customer’s changing business requirementswhile maximizing value and reducing incidents, disruption and re-work.
• Respond to the business and IT requests for change that will align the services with the business needs.
• Ensure that changes are recorded and evaluated, and that authorized changes are prioritized, planned, tested, implemented, documented and reviewed in a controlled manner.
• Ensure that all changes to configuration items are recorded in the configuration management system.
• Optimize overall business risk, it is often correct to minimize business risk, but sometimes it is appropriate to knowingly accept a risk because of the potential benefit.
Scope
Change can be defined in many ways. The ITIL definition of a change is ‘the addition, modification or removal of anything thatcould have an effect on IT services’. The scope of change management covers changes to all configuration items across the whole service lifecycle
Furthermore, the scope of the change management process also includes:
• Service solutions for new or changed services, including all of the functional requirements, resources and capabilities needed and agreed
• Management information systems and tools, especially the service portfolio, for the management and control of services through their lifecycle
• Technology architectures and management architectures required to provide the services
• Processes needed to design,transition, operateand improve the services
• Measurement systems, methods and metrics for the services, the architectures, their constituent components and the processes.
Concept (ServiceChange)
Change Management applies some of the most critical concepts in ITIL® that needs to be well-understood.
Service Change is defined as “The addition, modification and removal of an authorized, planned or supported service or service component and its associated documentation.”
Reasons for changesto arise:
• Proactively: as a means of seeking business benefits
• Reactively: as a means of resolving errors and adapting to changing circumstances
Other Concepts
Other vital concepts in Change Management are as follows:
• Request for Change (RFC): It is the formal request for a change made by those involved in the service, end-users, IT staff or management from business or IT. All RFCs should be documented and logged for traceability purposes.
• Change Proposal: This applies for cases where changes have significant implications to the organization as a whole or financially. A Change Proposal requires full details of the proposed change, reasons justified and approved by appropriate levels of business management.
Scope of Service Change
The scope of ChangeManagement covers changes to baseline Service Asset and
Configuration Items.
It covers interfacesto internal and externalservice providers where there are shared assets and Configuration Items which need to be governed by Change Management. Understanding the Service Portfolio will allow all parties to assess the impact of changes to current and new services.
There are three types of changes in the scope of a Service Change:
• Strategic Changes: Changes brought by Service Strategy and business management
• Tactical Changes: Changes brought by Service Design, Continual Service
Improvement and the servicelevel management process.
• Operational Changes: Changes brought by Service Operations, involving corrective changesore resolving errors
Service Transition Change Management in ITIL, ITIL Course
Change Proposal
A change proposalis used to communicate a high level description of the change. The change proposal is normally created by the service portfolio management process and is passed to change management for authorization.
In some organizations, change proposals may be created by a programmanagement office or by individual projects.
The change proposal should include:
• A high–level description of the new, changed or retired service, including business outcomes to be supported, and utility and warranty to be provided
• A full business case including risks, issues and alternatives, as well as a budget and financial expectations
• An outlineschedule for design and implementation of the change.
Types of Requests and Changes
Different types of changes may require different types of change requests. The different types of change requestsare:
• Normal Change: Follows the Normal change management processand can be categorized as Minor, Major or Significant in nature. Some Normal Changes are standardchanges which require simple processes.
• Standard Change: A change to a service or infrastructure whereby the change has been pre-authorized by Change Management. These are often handled by the Request Fulfillment process.
• Emergency Change: A changewith substantial impact on the business, that needsto be attended to immediately due to service failure withoutsacrificing normal management controls.
Service Transition Change Management in ITIL, ITIL Course Continual Service Improvement Measurements in ITIL – ITIL Course
Activities
Change managementensures that there is a standard process to handle all changes, of which the activities are as follows:
• Create and record RFCs
• Review RFC and change proposal
Filtering changes
• Assess and evaluatethe change
Establish appropriate level of change authority
Establish relevant areas of interest
• Authorize the change
Obtaining authorization/rejection
Communicating the decision with stakeholders and initiator of RFC
• Plan updates
• Coordinate Change implementation
Where the change is actually built, tested and implemented
• Review and close the Change
Collating the change documentation
Review the change(s) and change documentation
Closing the change document when all actions are completed
Depending on the type of change, the exact proceduresto execute the activities may be different.
“Seven Rs” of Change Management
All Requests for Change (RFCs) must be evaluated before approval.
The 7 Rs of Change Management state seven questions that must be answered to properlyevaluate a change:
• Who raised the change?
• What is the reason for the change?
• What is the return required from this change?
• What are the risks involved in the change?
What is ITIL ? Service Transition Change Management in ITIL, ITIL Course
ITIL is a framework of best practices for delivering IT services. ITIL’s systematic approach to ITSM can help businesses manage risk, strengthen customer relations, and build an IT environment geared for growth, scale, and change.
What is the meaning of ITIL in IT?
ITIL, or Information Technology Infrastructure Library, is a well-known set of IT best practices designed to assist businesses in aligning their IT services with customer and business needs. Services include IT-related assets, accessibility, and resources that deliver value and benefits to customers.
• What resourcesare required to deliver the change?
• Who is responsible for the build, test, and implementation of the change?
• What is the relationship between this change and other changes?
Planning and Scheduling
Changes need to be carefullyplanned to ensure tasks and processes are carried out accordingly and withoutambiguity. When planning a change, Change Management should carefully consider the impact on the business of the implementation rather thanfocusing entirely on IT needs.
Change Management coordinates the production and distribution of the follwoing deliverables:
• Schedule of Change (SC): Contains details of all authorized changes ready forimplementationas well as the implementation dates.
• Projected Service Outage (PSO): Containsdetails of changes to agreed SLAs and service availability as well as planned downtime.
Organizations may find it helpful to predefine change process modelsand apply them to appropriate changes when they occur. This set of predefined steps should be taken when dealing with specific types of changes in an agreed upon way.
No change should be approved without taking into consideration of solutions, if the change is unsuccessful. Ideally, a back-out plan or remedial plan willrestore the organization to its initial situation. However, it is important to note that not all changes are reversible, in which case an alternative approach to remediation is required.
Authorising Change
Formal authorizationfor a change is obtained from a change authority that may be a role, person or a group of people.
If for any reason, the assigned change authority discovers the change possesses a higher level of risk,the authorization request is escalated to the appropriate higher level of authorization. While the responsibility for change authorization lies with the Change Manager, he still must gain Financial Approval, Business Approval and Technology Approval.
The following must also be taken into consideration:
• The implications of performing the change, as well as the impacts of NOT implementing the change.
• The importance of empowering the change manager as its primary role is to protect the integrity of the IT infrastructure.
Change Advisory Board
• Change Advisory Board (CAB)
This is a very importantpart of Change Management, whichconstitutes a group of people selected for their capabilities and expertise in various areas of IT.
The CAB members advise the Change Manager in takingdecisions on the RFCs. The Change Manager normallychairs the CAB.
Potential CAB members include:
¾ Customer
¾ User Manager
¾ User Group
¾ Application Developers
¾ Specialist/Technical Consultants
¾ Services and Operations
¾ Third Parties (if outsourcing)
• Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB)
For emergency cases when immediate decisions need to be made, an
Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) is formed.
The members of ECAB may be different from members of CAB and a smaller group of people.
Review and Close Change
The purpose of Review and CloseChange is to ensure that all changes are carried outand that every change has met its objectives. It is also important to see what can be improved in future (similar) changes. Change review is also known as Post- Implementation Review.
There are two types of review:
• Review of service change: immediately visible to the customer, at the service level
• Review of infrastructure change: is concernedwith how IT delivers rather than what it delivers,which is usuallynot visible to the customers
Roles
Only individuals with appropriate skills and authority should hold the post of Change
Manager.
The main duties of a Change Manager are:
• Responsible for main activities of the process
• Control RFC
• Coordinate and chair the CAB
• Authorize changesbased on input and advice from CAB
Detailed duties of a Change Managerare:
• Accept, process, log and reject RFCs based on their practicality (depending on the impact of the change, this can be delegated to Change Coordinators).
• Issue agenda and circulate RFCs for CAB members
• Decide on the suitable expertiseto handle RFCs
• Convene urgent CAB or ECAB meetings for all urgent RFCs.
• Chair all CAB and ECAB meetings
• Authorize acceptable Changes adviced by CAB and ECAB
• Issue Change Schedules via the Service Desk
• Liaise with appropriate parties to coordinate Change building, testing and implementation
• Update the Change log on a regular basis
• Review all Changes that have been implemented.
• Review all outstanding RFCs
• Analyze Change records for trends or problems and rectify with relevant parties
• Close RFCs
It is the Change Manager, not the CAB or ECAB, that authorizes or rejects changes. The CAB is strictly an advisory body.
Metrics
It is essential to measure and count the number of Incidents that generates Changes as well as identify the causes of the Changes. Measures link to business goals, cost, service availability and reliability.
The Key Performance Indicators for ChangeManagement are:
• Reduction in the number of changeswhere remediation is invoked
• Reduction in the number of failed changes
• Average time to implement based on urgency, priority, or change type
• Incidents attributable to changes
• Accuracy percentagein change estimate
• Number of RFCs acceptedor rejected
• Number of emergency changesas a percentage of the total
Challenges
Challenges affecting Change Management are as follows:
• Change in culture: A central process comes into place that influences everyone’s activities
• Bypassing: Projects dodging the Change Management process
• Close relationship with Service Asset and Configuration Management: To execute a controlled change, all data must be reliable. Change Management relies on configurationdata, whereas Service Asset and Configuration Management relies on Change Management for the information on changes
• Commitment of the supplier(s) to the process
• Commitment of management
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