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Overview
Change Management is the process for managing the lifecycle of changes to IT services in the production environment using consistent procedures. These procedures include planning and documenting, risk assessment, review, and approval by a Change Advisory Board (CAB). Change management minimizes risks when making IT changes to systems and services, protecting the campus community and service provider.
When to Use Change Management
Technology Services uses Change Management on all changes to technical services that will affect the availability or functionality of the service. Some of these changes will result from service requests from campus members that require change requests because they affect the overall service. See Service Requests Under Change Management for important information regarding the list of these services.
Technology Services uses ServiceNow as its Change Management tool. While many of the policies and procedures guiding the process are the same as other units in the ServiceNow Shared Service, Technology Services has additional policies and procedures to meet its specific needs. This document provides the basic steps taken in the lifecycle of Change Requests (CRs).
Types of Change Requests
Standard - For changes that are low impact, have established implementation procedures, and have previously been completed successfully. Standard CRs are pre-approved, no additional approval is required.
Emergency - For changes needed to correct a service degradation/outage or address a critical service need (does not include a failure to plan). Emergency CRs require Service Manager approval, Executive Leader approval, and include a Post Implementation Review by the CAB.
Normal - For changes that are not Standard or Emergency. Approvals for Normal CRs depend on the risk of the change and can include approval by the Service Manager, Assignment Group Manager (AGM) for the CR, the CAB, and Technology Services Executive Leaders.
Normal Expedited - For changes that need to be implemented more quickly than the Normal lead time. These changes require quicker action but are not emergency changes that must be made immediately. Expedited Normal changes have raised approval levels compared to Normal Change Requests.
Change Request Process
- The need for a change is identified by the Service Provider or by campus members who submit service requests that require Change Management.
- A member of the assignment group for the requested service creates the appropriate type of CR based on the work needed.
- The CAB meets weekly on Thursday afternoon to review Normal CRs already approved by the AGM and Service Manager. The CAB may approve, return for additional information or cancel a CR.
- Once the CR is approved, the change is implemented based on the approved schedule. Each change request includes a plan for communicating with affected campus members and an ITAlert notice will be posted if appropriate.
- CRs go through a Post Implementation Review before being closed.
Change Freeze Periods (Blackout Dates)
Change freeze periods are defined and applied to minimize disruption of Technology Services services that support academic activities, especially those at critical times of the academic year such as end of and start of semesters. Academic activity dates for the following entities are included in determining specific change freeze window boundaries:
- TAMU
- School of Dentistry
- School of Medicine
- School of Nursing
- School of Pharmacy
- School of Public Health
During a change freeze period, changes to production services are highly restricted. All changes require elevated approvals. Additionally, changes usually submitted through a Standard Change template must be submitted as a Normal Change if they have not been previously approved to be eligible for use during the change freeze period.
Boundaries
The following start and end boundaries for change freeze periods have been defined to maximize the stability of IT services provided and still allow necessary maintenance to comply with required security and audit requirements.
- End of Fall and Spring semesters: Last day of classes through day grades are due
- Start of Fall and Spring semesters: 5 days before classes begin through last day for add/drop
If you have questions regarding our Change Management procedures, please contact the IT Service Management team at tamu-it-changemanagement@tamu.edu.