Following the framework will ensure successful change management will increase customer and IT staff satisfaction

IT B

enefi

tsBusiness Benefits

Fewer change related incidents, disruptions, and blackouts Fewer change related service disruptions and blackouts

Shorter change turnaround time Faster response to requests for new and enhanced functionality

Higher rate of change initiative success Higher rate of benefits realization when changes are implemented

Less change rework Lower cost per change

Reduce service desk calls & tickets for poorly communicated changes Fewer “surprise” changes disrupting productivity

Respond to business needs faster, with fewer incidents and disruptions.Respond to business needs faster, with fewer incidents and disruptions.

For Infrastructure Managers and Change Managers who need to re-evaluate their Change Management process, because of:

Or for Change Approval Board (CAB) members who want to prioritize changes in a way that meets business needs, minimizes cost, and mitigates risk to existing infrastructure.

Change-O-MaticChange Management Process

Too many change related incidents

Slow change turnaround time

Lack of stakeholder buy-in

Too many unauthorized changes

Too many emergency changes

Difficulty accurately evaluating changes

ITIL provides a usable framework for Change

Management, but full process rigor is not appropriate for every

change request. Full process rigor may promote resistance to the change as stakeholders see it as slow and bureaucratic. An

optimized Change Management process will respond to business needs faster and reduce change

related incidents and disruptions

Why?

Establish firm definitions and workflows before attempting to implement a Change Management process.

Assess changes for impact and risk before considering the changes for full approval.

Empower a Change Manager or CAB with the authority to approve and prioritize changes.

Incident & ProblemMajor

ReleaseSecurity

PatchMaintenance

Release

Operations

ConfigurationManagement

System

Workaround

Service Desk

Fix

New Version

New Application

Business

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Start this project today by calling 1-877-876-3322Use our Optimize Your Change Management Blueprint

Best Practice Toolkit Includes:

90 Do It Yourself Project Slides

Change Management Standard Operating Procedure Template

Request for Change Form

Source: http://www.infotech.com/research/ss/optimize-your-change-management-process

Guided Implementations:

Change Advisory Board Charter

Change Management Assessment tool

Make the case and current state assessment

Make a receive request for change

Assess, plan, and test changes

Approve, prioritize, schedule, and deploy changes

Develop an action plan

www.infotech.com1-877-876-3322

Plus: Onsite workshops available

How to Optimize your Change Management Process:How to Optimize your Change Management Process:

Assess & Evaluate Changes

Plan & Test Changes

Approve Changes

Prioritize & Schedule Changes

Release & Deploy

Changes

Conduct Post-Deployment

ActivitiesSubmit RFCs

Each phase of the process is assessed qualitatively and quantitatively.

Record metric measurements that demonstrate the performance of the process phase.

Assess capability to execute activities critical to the success of the phase.

Target State

Assess your Current State of Change Management

Current State

TrackProgress

The tool will then assess the completeness and success of your change management process.

Reassess Reassess

Low

Medium

High

Overall Change Management Process Completeness

Prioritize your Process Optimization

Act

ivit

y Pr

iori

ty (U

rgen

cy +

Eff

ort T

ab 2

)

Capability (Rate of process completeness from Tab 2)

This tool is intended for frequent use; process completeness and success should both be re-evaluated on a regular basis to

measure progress

Make and Receive Requests for Change

This section will walk you through a series of standard operating procedures to manage the change process in your organization. Below is a sample of a SOP that will be defined in this section.

SOP 5 - Standardize Requests for Change

SOP 5.1 - Use the Info-Tech Request for Change Template to submit requests for change.

SOP 5.2 - Triage Changes based on three distinct categories: Normal changes, Standard changes, and Emergency changes.

SOP 5.3 - Accept Requests for change

Is it Complete?Has it been categorized correctly?

Is this in scope for Change

Management? Is it a duplicate

request?

ReceiveRFC

Yes Yes

Return to requester and

request additional

information

Re-categorize and request additional

information if needed

Return to Requester

No No No

Yes

Emergency Normal Standard

Query CMS

Assess, Plan, and Test Changes

Assess Dependencies

Assess Business

Impact

Assess Required

Resources

Assess SLA Impact

Determine Risk Profile

Step 3 in the project will create an SOP for assessing, planning, and testing changes.

Risk Profile of Change

Impa

ct

Probability

A key consideration in the SOP is to consider the risk profile of the change.

Use a probability/impact matrix to decide how to respond to each risk.

Mitigate the Risk

Mitigate the Risk

Accept the Risk

Eliminate the Risk

Approve, Prioritize & Schedule Changes

The Change Manager or Change Approval Board

(CAB) will be a key owner of this process.

The CAB should be structured to meet different organizational needs.

Global CAB

MembershipMeeting

Frequency ObjectivesCAB

Regional CAB

Local CAB

Global CIO/CTO (CAB

chair) and regional CIOs

Semi-annually

Set Change Management standards and policy, and set the year’s change agenda - schedule upcoming organizational initiatives that will impact the deployment of changes.

Regional CIO (CAB Chair)

and silo/technologicalarea directors

Quarterly

Enforce global Change Management standards at the regional level, and set the regional change agenda - scheduling project work and regional initiatives based on organizational initiatives scheduled by the global CAB.

Weekly or Bi-Weekly

Enforce Change Management at the local level and prioritize and schedule local changes based on the agenda set by the Regional CAB.

Change Manager

(CAB Chair) and silo/

technologicalarea directors

Info-TechChange

Advisory Board

Charter Template

Use the Info-Tech Change Advisory Board Charter Template to establish CAB objectives and standards.

User Acceptance

Deploy Changes

No

Yes

Record in Log

The final SOP will create a process for deploying the IT change

RunBackout

Build & Test Release

CommunicateChange

Change Installation Success?

Record in CMS & Log

Build and test the release - once a change is approved and scheduled, the “baton is passed” to the deployment team.

Communicate the change - users are likely to feel disrupted and submit Service Desk tickets when they are surprised by deployed changes

Install the change and obtain user acceptance for successful deployments - change installation is out of scope for Change Management, but the Change team will be responsible for obtaining user acceptance for the change

1

2

3

Develop your Action Plan

March & April

Bob - FinalizeSOP

Create your Change Management strategic roadmap by prioritizing Change Management activities, identifying dependencies and grouping activities into actionable items

February & MarchBob/Tim - Formalize an

approval process for each category of change

February

Tim - Establish and define change categories

FebruaryBob - Obtain stakeholder

buy-in for Change Management

January

Bob - Perform a current state assessment

March

Sandra - Create standardized RFC forms

May

Tim - Document a CAB Charter

May

Sandra - Create a knowledge base for change documents

May & June

Sandra - Create standardized RFC forms

July - December

Sandra - Begin monitoring and reporting KPIs

Use the Info-Tech Change Management Assessment tool to prioritize and track your process improvement. The tool will walk through each activity in your change management process.