Below is a good example of how most organizations look at where the IT Change Management process starts - with the actual implementation. The implementation phase is actually the 5th phase of an effective change management program. In previous discussions I’ve listed the major IT change management phases. These include: Request, Analysis (Risk, Impact, Cost), Approval, Development and Testing, IMPLEMENTATION, Validation and Documentation. These are clearly defined in the ITIL standards. Omitting the first 4 phases opens the door and encourages failed changes.

I was sitting in a customer review to discuss the go-live process for an IT asset management (ITAM) project with one of our customers when the topic turned to their change management process. We wanted to make sure that all of the necessary actions had been completed to ensure the Change Advisory Board would approve applying the modifications our team had made. We were told that we were on the CAB schedule for the week before our scheduled go-live. Imagine my surprise that this would be the first time the CAB knew there was going to be major changes made to a business critical application. We discussed all of the areas that this change would impact - database (Oracle), service management (down for 12 hours), network management (need support for software pushes) and business unit support (4 business units involved). During this discussion several areas of concern were raised, but the largest was the impact that this change might have on other scheduled changes or vice versa. The bottom line on this story is that there were several conflicts/impacts and people were literally jumping through hoops to get them resolved so all of the changes could happen as scheduled.

Also, don’t forget to register for Evergreen’s change management webinar and learn how to Take Change Management from Firefighting to Fire Prevention

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