Change Management Process
1. Where can I learn more about the Change Management Process?
Review the Training page for more information.
2. What are the Types of Change?
Standard
A change that is pre-authorized and is created from an active Standard Change Template
Normal
A change that is not Standard, Expedited, or Emergency
Expedited
A change that requires implementation ahead of the required communication lead time but not within 48 hours
Emergency
A change that resolves an outage, or prevents an imminent outage, and must be implemented within 48 hours
3. How are low risk changes approved?
Low risk changes are approved by the Change Approver who is often both the ITS Service Owner and the manager, in most cases low risk changes are likely to be approved by your manager.
4. How do I propose, modify, or retire a Standard Change Template?
You may propose, modify, or retire standard templates through the Template Management category in the Standard Change Catalog.
- Approvals for standard change proposals are routed to CAB for approval.
- For more detailed information, review the “How to Propose Modify or Retire a Standard Change Template” video.
5. What is meant by “high success rate” for a change to be considered as a Standard Change?
A Change Requester may propose a Standard Change Template for a Normal Change if it has all the attributes of a standard change and has been completed successfully during the most recent three consecutive instances.
6. Can I modify a Standard Change Template proposal after submitting it for approval?
A standard change template proposal cannot be modified by the submitter once it has been submitted to CAB for approval. If the proposal requires updating, it can only be done by a CAB approver.
7. Do automated changes need to go through the Change Management process/ServiceNow Request for Change (RFC) flow?
Automated changes are in the scope of the Change Management process, except for those automated changes that meet Standard Change criteria.
Change Management Standards & Guidelines References:
- Section 2.3.1
- Section 15.2.3
8. How do I know what group to assign the Request for Change (RFC) to?
A change should be assigned to the group that owns the Configuration Item (CI) affected by the change. Please review KB0018293 for additional guidance.
9. When will my Request for Change (RFC) be reviewed by CAB?
Browse to the ITS Change Management Dashboard, select the ‘CAB’ tab, On the ‘Change KPI – CAB Pending Approval List’ pane you will find the date the RFC is schedule to be reviewed.
10. Where can I learn how to create an outage record for a Request for Change (RFC)?
Review the ‘Create an Outage Record‘ Knowledge Base article.
11. How do I close out a change after implementation?
Review the Finishing a Change Request video.
12. When should I place a Request for Change (RFC) ‘On Hold’?
If you have created an RFC and you are not ready for it to move forward for approval yet, you may place it ‘On Hold’ as long as the change is not in the New, Canceled, or Closed state. You may be waiting on some internal testing results, working out scheduling, or some other reason. Once you place a change ‘On Hold’, a new field will display that requires you to provide a reason.
13. How can I place a Request for Change (RFC) on-hold?
Check the ‘On hold’ box and enter the reason to the ‘On hold reason’ box.
Note: A change request may be placed on-hold as long as the state is not ‘new’.
14. Where can I see ‘On Hold’ changes?
Browse to the ITS Change Management Dashboard and select the ‘Change Open‘ tab. Click on the ‘On Hold Changes‘ widget to be taken to the list of on hold change records.
15. How can I cancel a change?
A change can be cancelled by clicking ‘Cancel Change’ in the top right corner. The workflow will automatically cancel the request as long as the state is not ‘new.’
16. What is an unsuccessful change?
A change that either significantly deviated from the implementation plan, caused an incident, or did not achieve the desired outcome. For example, the change:
- had to be backed out
- was implemented outside of it’s scheduled maintenance window
- exceeded it’s scheduled maintenance window
- was incomplete
17. What do I do if my change is unsuccessful?
Set the change request close code to ‘unsuccessful’ and follow the Post Implementation Review (PIR) procedure.
18. What is an ‘Overdue’ change?
A RFC will be considered an overdue change when its planned start date and time has passed, it is not in a Closed or Cancelled state, and has not been placed On Hold.
19. Where can I see ‘Overdue’ changes?
Browse to the ITS Change Management Dashboard and select either the ‘Change Overview‘ or the ‘Change Open‘ tab. Click on the ‘Overdue Changes‘ widget to be taken to the list of overdue change records.
20. How do I search the change history in ServiceNow?
Everything in ServiceNow is searchable. Keep in mind that the CMDB requires further information in order to tie specific changes to configuration items. Until that is implemented teams will need to use keywords in the short description of the change or within the text of the long description.
The fastest method is in ServiceNow go to ‘Change’ in the left hand menu, select ‘Closed’ or ‘All’ then select the funnel icon to filter based on various fields such as ‘Closed’ date range, ‘keywords’, ‘Short description’, and/or ‘Assignment Group’.
21. What if I disagree with the Risk Assessment Value (RAV) assigned to a Request for Change (RFC) that I submitted?
If the Change Requester and the Change Approver disagree with the RAV produced by the tool, they may bring their recommendation for improvement to the Change Advisory Board (CAB) for review along with the Request for Change (RFC).
22. Is there guidance or normalization on what the various things in the Risk Assessment Value (RAV) mean?
Taking in to account the set of criteria, Change Reviewer review, Change Approver review, we have a reasonable set of checks and balances step built into the process to ensure that the questions are being interpreted consistently. The Service Management team will periodically review changes sent to CAB that did not meet the RAV value for CAB.
Customer Advisory Board
23. Where can I learn more about the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) procedures?
Review the Training page for more information.
24. How is the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) formed and who are the members be?
At least one primary and one backup member from each ITS portfolio shall be appointed by each ITS director as a voting member of CAB. The Executive Sponsor shall appoint at least one primary and one backup CAB Facilitator. One-third of the voting CAB Members should be rotated out biennially to ensure proper representation in the CAB. Current CAB representation is listed on the Change Management page.
25. Does the makeup of the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) include technical as well as supervisory roles?
The CAB will have a representative from each of the ITS portfolios and other experts may be required depending on the change request complexity.
For more information reference Change Management Standards and Guidelines, section 7.2.2
26. Does the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) have guidelines for how to review and advise changes?
Yes, CAB havs guidelines and a checklist to review changes that are required to be reviewed at their level.
Review the Training page for more information.
27. How often does the Customer Advisory Board (CAB) meet to review Requests for Change?
CAB meets once a week to review agenda items. If there are no agenda items to review by noon the business day before a scheduled meeting, the CAB Facilitator may cancel the meeting.
28. Does an ad-hoc Customer Advisory Board (CAB) follow all the same processes/procedures for approval, etc. as a normally convened CAB?
Yes, with several caveats:
- For Moderate to High Risk Requests for Change (RFC), the ad-hoc CAB will not authorize a change but instead give advice on a course of action. Once the CAB has provided advice the Change Approver may authorize the RFC. If the authorization goes against the advice of the ad-hoc CAB, the Change Approver must document their reasoning in the RFC
- For High Risk RFCs, the Executive Reviewer or their delegate shall be consulted before the ad-hoc CAB
- For Very High-Risk RFCs, the Executive Approver and the Executive Reviewer, or their delegate, shall be included in the ad-hoc CAB
- A CAB Facilitator is not required to attend for the ad-hoc CAB to advise on a Request for Change (RFC).
Calendar
29. What are the lead times required to get a change on the Change Calendar?
Lead time refers to the interval between publishing a maintenance window and implementing the associated change. Windows mushed be published to the calendar with a minimum lead time of the following:
- Standard Change: No required lead time
- Normal Change: 5 business days
- Expedited Change: 48 hours
- Emergency Change: N/A
30. I have a recurring maintenance window series established; can I implement changes on instances of these windows?
Yes, authorized changes can be implemented in established maintenance window. Keep in mind that if the Maintenance windows will not be used, they should be cancelled or removed from the calendar to indicate to others that they will not have any potential conflicts for that time period.
31. What is the ‘Security Sensitive’ checkbox for on the RFC Risk Assessment tab?
When the Security Sensitive checkbox is enabled, the Planned Start and End date will not be required in the new change request. The change will lay out the details of what will be changed and how the change is implemented but will omit any schedule/timing details. It’s suited for the scenario for a sensitive piece of information that could provide a window of opportunity for bad actors. The scheduled change will not appear on the Change Calendar.
32. When do I post to Alerts & Outages vs the IT Maintenance Calendar?
Alerts & Outages is meant to inform the community of when service outages are planned or when an unexpected outage occurs. The IT Maintenance Calendar is meant to allow the IT community to plan their work around campus IT maintenance.
When creating an RFC, if the change will result in an outage, checking the “Create Outage” box on the “Planning” tab will create an outage record in Alerts & Outages in ServiceNow once the change is approved. Standing maintenance windows should be listed in the IT Maintenance Calendar regardless of the type of work being done in the maintenance window.