Summary
Change Enablement practices are designed to reduce incidents. The practices aim to ensure efficient and prompt handling of changes to IT infrastructure and code. Whether rolling out new services, managing existing ones, or resolving problems in code, Change Enablement provides context and transparency, helps to avoid bottlenecks, and minimizes risk.
The purpose of the change Enablement practice is to maximize the number of successful service and product changes by ensuring that risks have been properly assessed, authorizing changes to proceed, and managing the change schedule. (Axelos, 2019).
A secondary, yet critical, goal is to balance quality Change Enablement practices without unnecessary procedural bottlenecks for ET&S service providers.
Questions
What constitutes a change?
Why Change "Enablement" rather than Change Management?
What are the types, or categories, of changes?
What is the CAB and what does it do?
How do I view the Change Calendar?
What type of change should I request?
How do I submit a request for change (RFC)?
Answers
What Constitutes a change?
A change is the addition, modification, or removal of anything that could have a direct or indirect effect on IT services.
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Why "Change Enablement" rather than "Change Management"?
The term Change Enablement will be used instead of Change Management, to differentiate ET&S Change Enablement from organizational change management and ERP’s Change Management program.
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What are the types, or categories of changes?
- Standard Change - also called "pre-approved" or "PAS" (Pre-Approved Standard) change - are low-risk, pre-approved changes which are fully documented and have a history of success. Standard changes are initially normal changes which require a full risk assessment and approval by the CAB. Once approved, they may be scheduled without CAB approval or formal risk assessment.
- Emergency Changes must be implemented as soon as possible, for example to resolve a major incident or implement a security patch.
- Normal Changes are non-emergency changes without a defined, pre-approved processes. They require risk assessment and CAB approval.
- Normal Expedited Changes are normal changes which are at a higher risk than usual due to a short lead time.
- Operational Tasks are tasks which have low to insignificant risk, will not cause tickets to the help desk, and are performed as part of a normal SOP.. These are often automated and have little or no judgement or decision points. Operational Tasks are logged, either on the change calendar; on a service request, incident ticket, project task, or event log; or described in an SOP.
- Informational Events are either not changes at all (e.g. campus schedule information) or are insignificant changes to the development or test environment.
Click here for a more in-depth description.
What is the CAB and what does it do?
The Change Advisory Board (or Change Approval Board) is responsible for reviewing and approving all changes to the live environment so as to reduce risk, increase visibility, and minimize conflict. The CAB meets every Wednesday at 1:00 PM and is represented by each ET&S team.
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How do I view the Change Calendar
The change calendar can be viewed from the Change Enablement Application in TeamDynamix.
- Click the Desktop tab at the top of the TDNext window.
- Use the drop down box in the upper right corner of the screen next to the gear icon to select Change Calendar.
Alternately, the change calendar can be viewed in Outlook. See How to add Change Calendar to Outlook for instructions.
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What kind of change should I request?
This Change Type Quick Reference (PDF) info graphic will inform the decision for what type of change to submit.
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How do I submit a request for change (RFC)?
- Log into TeamDynamix.
- Use the waffle icon to locate the Change Enablement Application.
- Choose Request for Change link from the top of the screen.
Note; These instructions are very simplified. For detailed instructions see the TeamDynamix Change Enablement User Guide.
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Further Readings
USNH Change Enablement SOP
Change Enablement Service Catalog Page
Request for Change Quick Reference (PDF)
TeamDynamix Change Enablement User Guide
Need additional help?
For questions, feedback, and assistance with any part of the Change Enablement process, submit a Request for the ITSM Team and choose "Change Management Tool" as the ITSM Application option. Alternately, submit a request for Help & Questions from the Change Enablement Service Catalog Page.