"Notwithstanding the importance of all other processes,
including business development, production, QA, etc., change management should be the
foundation on which all others rest. All activities seek improvement and all improvement
is a result of change, but uncontrolled change does not necessarily guarantee improvement.
Change management engages two principal elements of a system,
Configuration Items and Change Authorities. One is a candidate for change and the
other is the entity that controls it. The two should be linked and their respective
relationships articulated in company policies, and implemented in automated systems,
where available. All that notwithstanding, it is a good policy to define as subject
to change management any item that affects more than one process or department within
an organization.
The impact, analysis, risks and benefits of impending change
should also be weighed accordingly across the spectrum of a CI’s use by all processes.
Change Authorities may be individual contributors, managers,
or committees representing knowledge with respect to the item, its proposed change
and related impact. Change has to be defined in terms of its scope, importance,
justification, and root cause. As well, within a Best Practices environment, change
should be identified in the context of an improvement, a preventive, or a corrective action."
- Excerpt from "The Life and Times of an SMB, or Making Sense of Best Practices"
Managing and controlling change is a vital undertaking for business operations, as well as being a
core concept in Best Practices methodologies like ISO, CMMI™ and ITIL. CENTRE's Change
Management Software Module is designed to keep the Change Management process moving forward by
letting IT organizations put a much narrower focus on what's being changed, who's making the change,
and how changes will impact resources and users.
Sample - Change Management Procedure - PDF
Sample - Change Management Work Instruction - PDF
Change Management Software Demonstration Script - PDF