Contributors
- Jeff Fournie, Project Lead, Enbridge Gas
- Dian Zhang Cui, Senior Advisor, Network Operations and Software Services, Alberta Energy Regulator
- Aderemi Ajagbe, System Architect, Visa
- Peter Chang, Infrastructure Manager, Alberta Energy Regulator (ret.)
- Infrastructure managers and change managers need to re-evaluate their change management process due to slow change turnaround time, too many unauthorized changes, too many incidents and outages because of poorly managed changes, or difficulty evaluating and prioritizing changes.
- IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.
- Infrastructure changes are often seen as different from application changes, and two (or more) processes may exist.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- ITIL provides a usable framework for change management, but full process rigor is not appropriate for every change request.
- You need to design a process that is flexible enough to meet the demand for change, and strict enough to protect the live environment from change-related incidents.
- A mature change management process will minimize review and approval activity. Counterintuitively, with experience in implementing changes, risk levels decline to a point where most changes are “preapproved.”
Impact and Result
- Create a unified change management process that reduces risk and is balanced in its approach toward deploying changes while also maintaining throughput of innovation and enhancements.
- Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
- Establish and empower a change manager and change advisory board with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.
- Integrate a configuration management database with the change management process to identify dependencies.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is an eleven call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Strategize
Call #1 - Introduce change concepts
Call #2 - Assess maturity
Call #3 - Review roles & responsibilities
Guided Implementation #2 - Build intake process
Call #1 - Define changes
Call #2 - Build risk assessment scheme
Call #3 - Define change intake process
Guided Implementation #3 - Build core processes
Call #1 - Review core change processes
Call #2 - Review emergency change processes
Call #3 - Create post-implementation review checklist
Guided Implementation #4 - Plan implementation
Call #1 - Review metrics
Call #2 - Create roadmap

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Change Management
Let your battle with change-related incidents begin!
This course makes up part of the Infrastructure & Operations Certificate.
Course information:
- Title: Change Management
- Number of Course Modules: 5
- Estimated Time to Complete: 2-2.5 hours
- Featured Analysts:
- Benedict Chang, Research Specialist, Infrastructure
- Allison Kinnaird, Research Director, Infrastructure
- Now Playing: Academy: Change Management | Executive Brief
Book Your Workshop
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Assess Maturity and Determine Gaps
The Purpose
Discuss existing challenges and maturity of change management processes.
Key Benefits Achieved
Understand starting point for change management and define the scope of change management.
Activities
Outputs
Outline strengths and challenges.
Conduct maturity assessment.
- Change Management Maturity Assessment
Build categorization scheme.
Build risk assessment matrix.
- Change Management Risk Assessment Tool
Module 2: Build Core Processes
The Purpose
- Define roles and responsibilities for the change management team.
- Develop standardized change management processes for approved changes, including process workflows.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Built the team to support new change management process.
- Formalized and right-sized change management processes for each change category to ensure all changes follow the correct process and core activities to ensure change success are completed.
Activities
Outputs
Determine change team roles and responsibilities.
- RACI chart
Define change manager role.
- Change Manager Job Description
Outline CAB protocol.
- Change Advisory Board Charter
Build normal, emergency, and pre-approved change processes.
- Change Workflow Library
Module 3: Build Support Processes
The Purpose
- Create a new change intake process including a new request for change (RFC) form.
- Develop post-implementation review activities to be completed for every IT change.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Book-end your change management process by standardizing the change intake and change implementation.
Activities
Outputs
Build RFC template.
- RFC Form Template
Create change intake process.
- Change Intake Process
Determine post-implementation review activities.
- Post-implementation review process
Module 4: Build Implementation Plan
The Purpose
- Develop a plan and project roadmap for reaching target change management program maturity.
- Develop a communications plan to ensure successful adoption of the new program.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Build a plan for tracking and managing changes and change metrics.
- Create a plan for targeted communications to key stakeholders, and build a project roadmap to manage the implementation of all identified tasks.
Activities
Outputs
Identify metrics and reports.
- Change Management Metrics Tool
Build change calendar.
Create communication plan.
- Communication Plan and Executive Presentation
Build implementation roadmap.
- Change Management Roadmap
After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.
Client
Experience
Impact
$ Saved
Days Saved
Gainesville Regional Utilities
Workshop
10/10
$31,405
115
Oregon Youth Authority
Guided Implementation
10/10
$12,562
10
Municipality of Chatham-Kent
Workshop
9/10
N/A
20
Derivco
Guided Implementation
9/10
$12,562
5
SF Fire Credit Union
Guided Implementation
10/10
$2,261
10
The MathWorks, Inc.
Workshop
8/10
N/A
10
Monroe #1 BOCES
Workshop
10/10
$63,880
100
Town Of Marana
Guided Implementation
10/10
$20,099
120
Dentons Canada LLP
Workshop
10/10
N/A
29
Hensel Phelps
Guided Implementation
10/10
$10,049
10
DynalifeDX
Workshop
10/10
N/A
20
Alabama Department of Environmental Management
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
20
The University of Texas at San Antonio
Guided Implementation
8/10
$62,810
50
IT Consultant
Guided Implementation
10/10
$25,000
12
State of Hawaii
Workshop
10/10
$63,667
N/A
Autolus Limited
Guided Implementation
10/10
$59,669
32
Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
10
United Bank
Guided Implementation
10/10
$12,562
10
Amicus Therapeutics
Workshop
10/10
N/A
N/A
Jet Support Services, Inc.
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Summit Healthcare
Guided Implementation
10/10
$38,226
18
ISG Central Services Ltd.
Guided Implementation
10/10
N/A
N/A
Federated Co-operatives Limited
Guided Implementation
9/10
$25,000
50
Oregon Youth Authority
Workshop
10/10
$10,049
32
Office of the Attorney General
Workshop
10/10
$2,546
50
AAA Club Alliance, Inc
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A
The Ultimate Software Group Inc
Guided Implementation
10/10
$8,913
7
Town Of Whitby
Workshop
10/10
$5,000
10
Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP
Guided Implementation
9/10
N/A
5
Psac
Guided Implementation
8/10
N/A
N/A