Change Management

Question 1

Change management

Answer 1

• Change control
• A formal process for managing change
• Avoid downtime, confusion, and mistakes
• Nothing changes without the process
• Determine the scope of the change
• Analyze the risk associated with the change
• Create a plan
• Get end-user approval
• Present the proposal to the change control board
• Have a backout plan if the change doesn’t work
• Document the changes

Question 2

Scope the change

Answer 2

• Determine the effect of the change
• May be limited to a single server
• Or an entire site

• A single change can be far reaching
• Multiple applications, Internet connectivity,
remote site access, external customer access

• How long will this take?
• No impact, or hours of downtime

Question 3

Risk analysis

Answer 3

• Determine a risk value
• i.e., high, medium, low
• The risks can be minor or far-reaching
• The “fix” doesn’t actually fix anything
• The fix breaks something else
• Operating system failures
• Data corruption

• What’s the risk with NOT making the change?
• Security vulnerability, application unavailability, or
unexpected downtime to other services

Question 4

Plan for change

Answer 4

• What’s it take to make the change?
• Detailed information
• Describe a technical process to other technical people
• Others can help identify unforeseen risk
• A complete picture
• Scheduling
• Time of day, day of week
• Include completion timeframes

Question 5

End-user acceptance

Answer 5

• Nothing happens without a sign-off
• The end users of the application / network
• One of your jobs is to make them successful
• They ultimately decide if a change is worth it to them

• Ideally, this is a formality
• Of course, they have been involved
throughout this entire process
• There’s constant communication before and after

Question 6

Change board and approvals

Answer 6

• Go or no go
• Lots of discussion

• All important parts of the organization are
represented
• Potential changes can affect the entire company

• Some changes have priority
• The change board makes the schedule
• Some changes happen quickly, some take time
• This is the last step
• The actual work comes next

Question 7

Backout plan

Answer 7

• The change will work perfectly and
nothing will ever go bad
• Of course it will

• You should always have a way to revert your changes
  
  • Prepare for the worst, hope for the best
• This isn’t as easy as it sounds
• Some changes are difficult to revert
• Always have backups
• Always have backups

Question 8

Document changes

Answer 8

• Something changed
• Everyone needs to know

• Help desk documentation
• Version numbers, network diagram, new server
names

• Track changes over time
• Cross-reference against help desk tickets
• Track before and after statistics
• Better or worse?