1.3 Change Management Process

Change Approval Process

A formal process for managing change (helps avoid downtime, confusion, and mistakes

Ownership

The actual owner of the process (application/data) and usually doesn’t perform the actual change

Stakeholder

• People/group that is affected by the change

• They should have an input on the change management process

Impact Analysis

• Assessing the potential consequences that a proposed change to an IT system may have

• Determining a risk value (ex.high,med.low)

Test Results

• Given the potential risks of change, testing should be done

• Sandbox testing environment: can perform as many tests as desired with no effect on production systems

Backout Plan

• A documented series of steps used if tests fail so that everything can go back to the way it was

• Used before making a change to the production environment

Maintenance Window

• A scheduled time slot for fixing or improving computer systems

Standard operating procedures (SOPs)

• Detailed step-by-step instructions for specific tasks 

• Reduces errors in change implementation within the organization

Restricted Activities

Limited to only making changes that are specifically listed in the change control document

Dependencies

Having to make a change to one application or service before you’re allowed to install/update another service

Ex. Having to clear some storage before a software update

Version control

• Keeping track of all of the different versions installed

• More efficiently able to convert to previous versions if you run into problems