Changes

A change names the affected service and summarizes the planned work. It carries a risk level, scheduled start and end, rollback plan and status. The Service Manager can prepare a draft, send it for review and keep the decision distinct from implementation. The Change Approver sees the reviewed change and decides whether it may proceed.

Consider a planned configuration update for a service that supports a subscription. The manager records the intended window and the rollback path before asking for approval. The approver can evaluate the risk in the context of the service. The Service Manager records the decision. If approved, the manager moves the change into implementation and later verifies its outcome. If rejected, that decision remains visible on the same change record.

• Preparation. Record the summary, service, risk, schedule and rollback plan.
• Review. Move the draft into review so the decision is explicit.
• Outcome. Follow approved work through implementing and verified, or record a rollback.

Decide what information must be present before a change enters review. Risk should use the agreed low, medium or high scale. The scheduled start and end should represent the planned window, while the rollback plan should describe the action the team will take if implementation fails. Agree who is allowed to approve and who records the resulting status.

A service’s maintenance status and a change’s implementing status describe separate things. The team should agree how to communicate a scheduled window to affected people and when to update the service record. If an incident occurs during the window, it remains an incident with its own assignee and chronology.

Prepare a change for an active service with a risk level, start and end dates, and a rollback plan. Move it from draft to review. Ask the Change Approver to find it, inspect the plan and decide whether it should be approved. The Service Manager records that decision. If approved, the manager moves it into implementation and then records verification after the work is checked.

Rehearse a second path in which the implementation needs rollback. The result should read rolled back rather than verified, while the original schedule and plan remain available for review. The manager should be able to compare the approved change with the resulting service state and any incident opened during the work.

• Changes for review — Planned changes awaiting the Change Approver’s decision.
• Change schedule — Approved and implementing work with start and end dates.

See change control and incident response.