Changes

A change records the service affected, a summary, risk, scheduled start and end, and a rollback plan. The Change Approver reviews those facts while the status is Review. A change can become Approved or Rejected from that decision. An approved change can then move to Implementing, followed by Verified or rolled back according to the outcome. The current status shows whether work is awaiting review, underway or finished.

The schedule is useful because approval alone does not say when a technician should act. Start and end dates define the proposed window. The rollback plan tells the person implementing the change what action is available if the result is wrong. Keeping these details on the change helps the Service Manager inspect the outcome in the context of the original decision.

• Prepare. Enter the service, summary, risk, window and rollback plan on a Draft change.
• Authorize. Move the proposal to Review and let the Change Approver decide its outcome.
• Implement. Work within the approved window and record whether the result was verified or rolled back.

Decide how risk levels are interpreted for your services and what a sufficient rollback plan contains. Agree who can move a Draft into Review and who is allowed to approve it. Keep the approver distinct from the implementer where your operating policy requires separation. Define the evidence the Service Manager expects before a change is marked Verified. For a rolled back outcome, agree how the team records follow-up work, including any incident that the change caused.

Suppose a service component needs a planned update. The preparer records Medium risk, the affected service, the intended start and end, and the action to reverse the update. The Change Approver checks the proposal in Change review inbox and approves it. The technician finds the approved work in Change schedule, performs it during the recorded window and marks it Implementing. After checking the service, the manager records Verified. If the implementation fails instead, the team uses the recorded rollback plan and records rolled back. The decision, window and result remain together for later review.

A useful review also asks whether the scheduled end leaves enough time to check the service. The approver can ask the preparer to improve the rollback plan before granting authorization. After implementation, the Service Manager should read the original plan while checking the result. That keeps the final status connected to the decision that allowed the work to begin.

• Change review inbox — Proposals awaiting a decision, with risk, dates and rollback plan.
• Change schedule — Approved and active changes arranged by their planned start and end.

See change control and service ownership.