Change Management

Users resist change, but businesses require it, and with business change comes technology change. Change can also be initiated by technology itself as the underlying technologies for services are upgraded and improved regularly. As an IT service professional, you must understand the implications of change on the services that you offer. But with change comes risk. Changes to the environment can cause problems, especially if they are implemented poorly or without proper testing. If something goes wrong, the first question you should ask yourself is, "What changed?"

In this Discussion, you will evaluate specific changes in an organization and determine the type of change, how it should be tested, and the urgency with which it should be implemented. As in other exercises in this course, use some imagination and expand your thoughts beyond the suggestions presented. In all cases, assume an adequate testing environment available for your use.

The following changes have been proposed for your organization, and due to limitations in your payroll budget, you cannot make the change before or after business hours:

• Installing a vendor-recommended patch to the relational database of the ERP to prevent system locks, which have been occurring every hour and freezing the screens of most users, preventing them from performing their normal work duties
• Updating the prompts of a data entry screen used by the call center
• Upgrading a server to a new operating system version because the old version will no longer be supported in 6 months
• Installing a major new release of an important tax application used by the five tax specialists in the finance department
• Installing annual state and federal tax rate updates in a financial application affecting the payroll of the entire company
• Moving a departmental system from a Windows server to a UNIX server
• Upgrading the Internet service from 1 Mbps to 5 Mbps, requiring a 30-minute outage

For three of these changes:

• Determine and defend whether the change is standard, normal, or emergency(as defined on p 7 of the ITIL: Introducing Service Transition article).
• Evaluate the urgency and effects of the change. When should the change occur and why?
• Compose an approach and identify the personnel for testing the change. Defend why the testing strategy is the appropriate amount of testing given the type of change.
• Estimate, with supporting arguments, the risk of the change, keeping in mind the number of users affected by the change. Choose a back-out strategy, if appropriate.

Be sure to defend and support your opinion and remember to properly cite your sources according to APA guidelines.