Change Management

A change can be defined as a process with the aim to alter or transform (in this case an IT service or application) with the intent to provide quality improvements. A change can arise as a result of improving existing services, developing new services or resolving the known problems / issues. For example, an organization has application software for order processing that allows the customers to view the products but doesn’t allow them to place online orders. The orders are accepted via phone followed by manual entry of details on the application. This is a time consuming process with high risk of manual errors. To overcome this, the organization decides to upgrade the system so that the customers get the flexibility to place online orders. The system upgrade would result in significant change to both the hardware and software of the application.

Organizations with undefined IT change management procedures cannot efficiently manage changes and this would result into a change that is not fully implemented across the business operations and functions; thereby failing to meet the business requirements. Changes that are not assessed, and reviewed correctly can actually hamper the business. Lack of approvals for changes can lead to unauthorized changes implemented in the production system. It can also give rise number of incidents, problems and errors.

The Manage IT Change Management Process helps in planning and implementing IT infrastructure and application changes, managing organizational and work force transitions, thus improving the efficiency of any IT change release.

A well defined IT change management process helps to evaluate the overall risk in implementing the change, helps to reduce incidents and problems that can arise due to implementation of change and ensures that the changes are implemented within the estimated cost and timeframe. In case of the earlier example, an effective change management process would analyze what are the risks involved, assess the impact of change on business and implement the change based on pre-defined process with the approvals from all stakeholders.

Implementation of a structured change management process assists an organization to effectively track and manage changes. Change management process ensures that only authorized changes are allowed to be implemented in the production system. It works hand in hand with testing and release management. This goes a long way to create confidence among application owners that changes being deployed on production will not create more problems and will actually meet business requirements. The process helps in classifying and prioritizing the change requests. It establishes a roles and responsibilities matrix that helps in segregation of duties and proper utilization of resources. The cost and risk associated with the change are evaluated which helps in assessing the overall impact on the business and calculating the return on investment (ROI). If the change has a negative impact on the business, the process of returning to a stable configuration is comparatively easy and quick with the implementation of a structured change management process. Having proper procedures in place reduces the time required to implement the change, the number of potential incidents and problems associated with each change and the possibility of unsuccessful change.

Changes occur at an incredible pace and organisations require well defined change management procedures. The change management process should be designed to effectively monitor, manage and implement changes in an organisation while reducing the negative impact on business and ensure that the ongoing services are not disrupted due to implementation of change.

About Author:

Harish Mani  is senior consultant and part of Systems Plus Pvt. Ltd. think tank. He in Systems Plus actively contributes to technology and information security. He can be contacted at: harish.m@spluspl.com