Change management is all about making sure any changes you are making cause the minimal of disruption to the business and if, it cannot be avoided, communicate the change to the business so alternative arrangements can be made.

We have all had that dreaded unscheduled changes happen to us at some point in our lives. Let us take the example of a holiday. There could be a connecting flight involved which is tight but do able, just as Murphy’s law decides to play out and a plane is delayed or cancelled. Time to put your  head in your hands and sob. The change was unscheduled so alternative arrangements have to be made at that moment, not ideal and your calm, holiday self has transformed into a angry ogre as someone is separating you from your holiday. This situation could be avoided if change management was followed.

Lets now take something quite mundane to describe the three types of changes, standard, normal and emergency. A family car, used to take mum to work, one child to ballet and another to rugby on Monday night, kickboxing for one child on Wednesday night and Friday night is always eat out night…well its Friday.

A standard change would be something routine, something which doesn’t need prior planning like a normal change. Maybe checking the tyre pressures and pumping them back up to the correct PSI, checking the oil level and topping the oil up or it could be something like a whole oil change, if you are very competent. Word of warning, have some wood chips or cloth to mop up any excess oil. My dad once found out to his cost…and the wrath of my mother. As you can see it is something quite day to day, nothing too impactful on the service running of the car.

A normal change, is something which could be potentially impactful to the service running of he car. A service of the car at a car dealership could be one candidate for a normal change. The day of the service cannot be impactful to the SLA which has been agreed with the kids  of Monday night and Wednesday night and hopefully not Friday. So the service needs to be either completed in the day time or if it needs to be left over night, the service should be carried out on Tuesday or Thursday to cause the least disruption to the kids. Mum can work from home on these days so she is also minimally impacted. Dad’s car is also there as a back up to take the kids to various clubs if the car does need more time. This is much the same as a backup link on a network, while one switch is being worked on, the backup network can take up the loading. The timing is discussed with both parents (CAB meeting) to make each other aware of the upcoming change to the service running of the car so dad can make provisions to make sure his car is able to step in, if needed.

An emergency change, this could be a breakdown of the car while mum was driving home or in the case of the plane, the plane cannot be used. An emergency CAB is formed of only the people who need to be involved (this should be pre-arranged) to try and make sure the service can be resumed as quickly as possible. In the case of the car, mum will need to call dad to ask if he can go home and make sure the kids can get to the right places in time. In the case of the plane, ground staff and checkin staff will need to try and find if other planes can take the stranded passengers to their destinations or if another plane can be used. Communication needs to be clear and quick in order to keep the customers informed and to reduce customer frustration. These types of emergency changes should be kept to a minimum but you should know what to do if such a change is needed and who to ask for approval in order to know who to involve in the emergency CAB.

Thankyou for reading my post. This is my opportunity to blog about a subject I love but am still learning. These posts are my way of showing how I understand the subject, however, I would encourage you to leave comments, did you agree / disagree with the post? Did I not explain something well enough or incorrectly? Do you want me to blog about another subject within ITIL? All feedback helps me to understand more. Thankyou.