Change management is divided into organizational change and change support.
Organizational change: Ensuring smooth implementation of changes within the organization and achieving business continuity and stability through management of change-related aspects.
Change support: Properly assessing change risks, authorizing and managing change schedules, and increasing the number of successful changes for stable business operations.
Change management is an IT practice that aims to minimize the risk of service interruption while operating critical systems and services.
Importance of Change Management
As an important part of projects/organizations during operation, change management has always been known for its cumbersome processes. Many users have a psychological resistance to it and think it is too rigid. However, this is not the case. If change management is treated as a standardized process, although users will feel restricted in actual use, in a gradually mature change management system, change management will gradually feel more like technical support. If change management is well-run, it can make the organization's work approach closer to standardized behavior guidelines, plan organizational process mechanisms, strengthen the standardization of change operations, reduce the number of failures caused by changes, and greatly improve the stability of business operations. Change management is one of the important aspects of stable operation of any system. It requires the following traits or capabilities:
Standard change management process: The change management process is the first step in the best practices of change management. This process should include links such as change initiation, change approval, change implementation, and change verification. When introducing the change management process, it is necessary to ensure the transparency and traceability of the process in order to timely discover and resolve issues during the change process.
Standard change management database: A standard change management database is the second step in the best practices of change management. This process should include the classification of change systems, change levels, change objects, and corresponding standard approval processes for different types of changes. And ensure the integrity and accuracy of the data in a timely manner to ensure that the corresponding data can be matched when a change is initiated.
Continuous operation of change data: Continuous operation of change data is the third step in the best practices of change management. This process should include the statistics of change result data, change boards, and so on. The data in the board can be filtered and analyzed, gradually standardizing the change process and operations within the organization, so as to better ensure continuous business operation.
Best Practices
Standard change management process
Before establishing a standard change management process, it is necessary to have a clear understanding of the definitions of various processes related to change.
Change initiation: Before initiating a change, it is necessary to clearly define information such as the change content and the reason for the change. Clear information can reduce the workload of change evaluators and clarify the significance of the change. Change information includes:
Basic information: title, time, change initiator, reason, etc.
Related information: change system, change scenario, change type, etc.
Change plan: change implementation plan, rollback plan, verification plan, etc.
Change approval: It is reviewed by the person responsible for the change system to ensure the risk level of the change. If it cannot be controlled or predicted, it is recommended to clarify the change plan or prohibit the change. The change approval process can be combined by multiple people, including business leaders, team leaders, technical leaders, etc. The personnel involved in the change can be determined based on factors such as the impact and scope of the change.
Change implementation: By assigning the executor confirmed at the time of initiation to ensure that the executor of the change is a technical staff member related to the content of the change, thereby ensuring the accurate execution of the change.
Change verification: After the change is completed, check the change object and the content of the change to ensure that the actual business is not affected by the change, and release the change result after the inspection is complete.
Change closure: After the change is completed, close the change task. Keep the change record for subsequent operation and analysis of change data.
After clarifying the definitions of each link of the change, strictly follow this specification to help organizations or companies standardize operation processes, improve change efficiency, reduce risks, and improve business continuity.
Standard change management database
When establishing a standard change management database, we need to sort out relevant information such as internal business, personnel, and systems within the organization. By maintaining the information, the integrity and accuracy of the information can be ensured. Through the change management database, a sound change circulation mechanism can be established to ensure that the audience is aware of the changes and give their suggestions before the changes. At the same time, in various states such as change initiation and change execution, relevant stakeholders and responsible personnel can be notified. The data to be maintained includes, but is not limited to, the change system, change type, change scenario, approval process, and change record, etc.
Continuous operation of change data
After the process is standardized, the organization needs to retain and manage all change records in a regular form. By storing change data, better visibility of changes can be achieved. Through different comparison and display methods, the causes of problems, events, etc. can be analyzed to assist in subsequent knowledge management and accumulation. Quick emergency plans can be made for different types of problems. Use change improvement technological processes to continuously enhance the ability of the organization to provide better services.