ITIL is a type of IT Service Management (ITSM) framework that delivers real value to customers and business. Each stage of ITIL includes the relevant processes to help businesses manage their IT services.

Learn more about ITIL change types and how effective change management can help organize change requests and streamline your IT processes.

In this article:

What is ITIL Change Management

ITIL change management is part of the service transition stage of the ITSM lifecycle, which is responsible for any incident reports or admin requests at an IT service desk.

ITIL change management follows a process flow to evaluate, plan, and deploy change requests. The primary objective is to ensure that change execution does not interrupt ongoing operations, keeping the change as low risk as possible.

The process acts as something of a gatekeeper, authorizing every change record before it’s moved to the release management stage. It can also help businesses stay in control of all their change requests and monitor the development of their IT infrastructure alongside industry trends.

The five stages of ITIL change management process flow

ITIL change management process flow includes five stages:

Request for change (RFC)

Change assessment and planning

Change approvals

Change implementation

Post-implementation review

By following a strategic workflow, businesses and organizations can benefit from fewer service disruptions and IT incidents.

What are the types of changes in ITIL?

ITIL change types can be grouped into standard changes, normal changes and emergency changes. Changes can be varied – some may be routine changes and low risk admin reports, while others may need resolving as soon as possible. Some changes might also require approval from managers, stakeholders or the Change Advisory Board (CAB), which oversees and reviews overall change risk management.

Standard changes

Standard changes are periodical changes that follow a standard operating procedure using templates with pre-prepared information. A standard change is:

Standard changes do not follow the conventional process flow. You’ll only require approval the first time. Then, you can complete any future changes without CAB approval, so long as the change has not been modified in any way.

Example: OS upgrades and patch deployment.

Normal changes

To resolve a normal change, you must follow the entire change process, including:

Any changes that aren’t seen as standard or emergency should follow the process for a normal change. This includes:

Normal changes may require both manager and CAB approval. It’s also important to document any relevant information about the normal change for future reference.

Example: Website changes or data center migration.

Emergency changes

Emergency changes are urgent disruptions that must be assessed, approved and resolved as soon as possible. They are:

An emergency change can impact business operations and create costly downtime, requiring specific approval and authorization. It’s incredibly important for the Emergency Change Advisory Board (ECAB) to understand the risks, impact and manage approval.

The IT service management system must be prepared for emergency changes to deliver a consistent user experience.

Emergency changes also require a post-implementation review with mandatory documentation to understand potential risks that could occur in the future.

Example: Fixing a security breach or server outage.

By setting concrete standards for different change types and classifications, businesses and organizations can stay alert to issues and surprises. Emergency changes can present high risks to business operations, so it’s important to respond effectively.

Use cases for ITIL change management

IT and DevOps teams use ITIL Change management effectively on a day to day basis to handle new change requests and plan for deployment. There are different possible use cases where ITIL Change management can be utilized.

Use case 1 - Business Continuity Management

Business Continuity Plan (BCP) and Disaster Recovery (DR) are vital to ensure seamless business operations. This is an ideal example of high impact and high risk major change that requires prudent change planning. The responsibilities of change management in BCP&DR include

  • Minimal or no interruption to the current ecosystem

  • Optimal resource utilization

  • Impact analysis to identify vulnerable Configuration Items (CIs)

  • Proper documentation of all relevant changes

  • Communication strategy to all stakeholders

  • Service monitoring including recovery time taken (RTO,RPO)

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Change Record Template

Stage BCP/DR Process
Request For Change (RFC) Customer reports an Incident and requests for a new implementation. It includes changes to infrastructure level components.
Change Evaluation & Planning Change manager evaluates RFC template and understand cost associate. Change planning involves proper scheduling without any conflict. BCP & DR is applicable to multiple locations. Change team identifies specific location where BCP/DR will be executed
Approvals Change Advisory Board (CAB) includes members from BCP team and other stakeholders; Communicate the new changes to all customers, vendors; Update all relevant collaterals including BCP template.
Implementation & Review   Release management team handles deployment of the change and Change team is responsible for post implementation review and CSI.
Use case 2 - Security Fix

Security breach costs a lot to the business if not fixed quickly. Security bug fix and enhancement is an example of emergency change. Emergency change has limited time available and therefore, implement only necessary change management processes. Live environments and production systems are vulnerable when you execute emergency changes. Standard testing and Emergency CAB (ECAB) approval are crucial to avoid any unintended disruptions. Emergency Change management process involves:

  • End user reports an emergency change ticket

  • Change Manager assesses risk and impact

  • Change Planning is done quickly using change template

  • Approval is triggered to ECAB members (Emergency CAB members)

  • Change implementation includes security bug fix

  • Change assessment is done again post implementation

  • Retrospective RFC happens post implementation for the purpose of IT audit

  • Continuous review takes place to avoid any similar emergency change in future

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Use Case 3 - Cloud Change Management

Businesses are moving towards cloud and agile. Change management in cloud is a standard change with a pre-approved process. In cloud environment, there are frequent releases and time to release is fast. Therefore, an effective change management process is essential. QA and testing happen frequently and therefore, following a standard change management process helps to control risk.

  • Create a change request that is assigned to the respective Change team

  • Associate relevant tickets to this change record

  • Understand Service Level Agreement (SLA) with cloud service providers

  • Prepare a standard change template to eliminate repetitive tasks

  • Proper scheduling of releases in a multi-tenant architecture

  • Prepare a back-up plan to roll back to working state

  • Use sandbox environment for QA & testing to ensure desired working state

ITIL Change management is useful for any business irrespective of the size and nature. Change management solves multiple use cases and leverage change management process flow to improve efficiency and mitigate risk.

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Benefits of ITIL change management

Using formal change types and ITIL change management processes can add significant value to your user experience, business operations and IT team. Here are just a few benefits of effective change management: 

Reduction of risk and impact

Following standardized processes ensures that all the important factors IT project management and changes are considered and managed appropriately. This includes planning, risk assessment and tracking the progress of the change as it’s executed.

Change management groups such as normal changes, standard changes and emergency changes also help reduce risk and assess the cost of a proposed change before they’re implemented.

Maintenance of current working state

ITIL change models and management processes help protect your live services from costly damage and downtime.

What’s more, change management can improve the functionality of your IT service desk by introducing a level of automation, with pre-prepared changes and paths to follow.

Not only does this enhance the business perception of your IT services, offering a better-quality service, it also helps to improve your internal workflow. Syncing your business requirements with your IT services is vital for productivity, particularly for growing businesses.

Communication and approval management

ITIL change management helps to increase visibility and communication for your business, users and IT teams. If you’re implementing any scheduled changes, it also helps to improve communication surrounding downtime and unavailable services.

By having a dedicated change request and approval process, your business will experience smoother service operations and fewer disruptions from poor planning. Nothing goes ahead without the green light of your change authority.

ITIL metrics also ensure employees are following best practice, which is vital for customers and the overall health of the business.

Effective change planning with optimized resources

Following change management workflows gives your IT service desk the ability to roll out an upgrade such as a security patch without affecting general operations. This helps improve your service delivery.

It also means your teams can complete a larger volume of proposed changes, thanks to organized procedures. So, it’s not just about improving change management, it’s also change enablement.

Reduction in number of incidents due to change execution

Change management makes it easier to identify and reduce unauthorized changes and improve incident management.

Users can submit a request for change (RFC) through the IT service desk and your teams can view everything they need from one application. From here, they can decide which changes can be implemented and receive all necessary permissions before they resolve the request.

Having a clear understanding of different change types and how to proceed with them also helps to reduce backed-out changes. And any changes you do back out of will be performed more efficiently. The same applies for major incidents and failed changes.

Choosing the right IT Change Management Tool for your business

Finding the right IT change management software can dramatically impact your business for the better. Optimize your IT operation and improve your change rollout efficiency from one convenient application.

Freshservice gives you hands-on control across your entire change lifecycle.

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