Definition of "Change Management"

ITIL V3 - The process for controlling the Lifecycle of all Changes. The primary objective of Change Management is to enable beneficial Changes to be made, with minimum disruption to IT Services. Definition of Change

• Change to the Essex production environment
  • Identity Management and Cybersecurity systems, Network, servers and telephony
• Change to enterprise applications
  • Yardi
• Database structure changes or report changes
• Structural changes for Access groups or permissions
• Changes to RentCafe Resident Portal
• Changes to online application
  • Web sites and applications
• Code level changes such as CSS, HTML, PHP and DB structure
  • Business intelligence and reporting
• Hyperion report changes etc.

Documentation Required

• Submitter creates Request For Change document containing:
  • System to be modified
  • Requested By
  • Type of change
  • Description of request
  • Justification
  • Assignment Group
  • Planned start and end date
  • Implementation Plan
  • Backout plan
  • Test plan
• External Changes - Details of Request
  • Submitter creates Request For Change document containing:
  • System to be modified
  • Type of change
  • Description of request
  • Category of Change (see subsequent slides)
  • Reason for change/business justification
  • Date/time of proposed change
  • Back out plan

Categories of Change

• Normal Change
  • Not standard and non-emergency change
  • Requires RFC process for review and approval
• Standard Change
  • Pre-approved changes that are relatively low in risk.
  • Not tracked through RFC but rather through Service Request
• Must have documented process that has been approved by CAB
• Emergency Change
  • A change request is classified as emergency when the change is immediately required to allow for the continued operation of the business. A change request can be classified as emergency when reviewed and preliminarily approved by a Senior Manager, or above, member of the IT management team. Emergency changes follow the standard change control procedure except that paper documentation is not required until after the emergency has passed (logging the ticket in the Service Desk system, etc.). The Service Desk ticket should note that the change was an emergency change, and that proper approval had been obtained.
• Latent Change
  • Change that has already been performed (for example, if a task implementer is assigned to replace the hard drive on a PC and then decides to upgrade the memory while the box open is open) and requires approval after the fact.

Change Process - Overview

• Request for Change
  • (RFC) initiated by business or IT
• RFC recorded by
  • RFC reviewed by CAB
• CAB will meet weekly
  • Upon CAB review
• Changes will be authorized
  • Authorized changes will be planned for and scheduled for release/deployment
• Release/deployments will be coordinated for implementation into production environment

Change Process - Submitting change

• Request for Change
  • (RFC) initiated by business or IT and submitted by 4PM the day before regularly scheduled weekly CAB meeting.
• RFC recorded by
  • RFC reviewed by CAB
• CAB will meet weekly.
  • Upon CAB review
• Changes will be authorized
  • Authorized changes will be planned for and scheduled for release/deployment
• Release/deployments will be coordinated for implementation into production environment

Change Process - Evaluation Criteria

• Changes should be evaluated for the following:
  • What are the risks of the change?
  • What resources are needed for successful change?
  • Any impact on IT infrastructure and quality of service?
  • Could the change affect/compromise existing security?
  • Can change be group as part of a package?
  • Back out plan will need to be defined.

Change Process - Changes Advisory Board/Key Participants

• Patrick Klein, Chief Technology Officer
• Fabian Garcia – Director IT
• David Pitts, Director IT
• Yen Liu, Director IT
• Louise Brandy, VP, IT
• Fred Custodio, Director IT
• Sheri Rowden, Director Program Management IT
• Courtney Trindell, Director of Product Management IT
• Bruce Valles, Sr Manager IT – CAB Manager
  • Gale Hansragh, VP, Internal Auditor (ex-officio member)