7.4 Change Control Process

7.4 Change Control Process

Every ISD organization needs a change control process. Change control can be a very complex process, consisting of a formal review process, weekly change meetings, and several levels of approval processes. It can also be a simple tracking process that is completed after the change has taken place. Most organizations probably use some combination of the two. Below is a sample change control process.

7.4.1 Change Control

Establish a process to manage and track system change requests within the IT group , especially changes to the application servers and applications themselves . All system change requests are to be submitted to the help desk, which will function as both the control point and tracking point for all changes.

  • Complete the system change request with all related information explaining problem statement, details of change, backup requirements, testing process, implementation impacts, and execution date.

  • Submit new system change requests directly to the help desk.

  • The help desk will assign a number to the system change request and enter this into the change request tracking database.

  • The help desk will distribute the change control request to the affected customers. This will serve as notification of the change.

  • The help desk will generate periodic reports of all system change requests to the list activity.

  • Change notification request periods are based on the type of change:

    1. Major Projects ”  

      Two weeks prior to change date.

    2. Nonemergency ”  

      Five days prior to change date.

    3. Emergency Fix ”  

      Submitted within 24 hours after the fix has been implemented.

7.4.2 Change Control List

Table 7-2 is used to determine what procedures/ tasks need to be reported through the change control process for approval. There are different requirements for production and development environments. For the production environments, all procedures/tasks must go through change control except where noted "NOT REQ'D." In the development environment, only those procedures/tasks noted as "REQ'D" need to go through change control. All other items in the development environment do not need to follow the formal change control process.

Table  7-2. The Change Control List

Procedure/Task

Production

Development

application account add/change/delete

NOT REQ'D

application mail changes

NOT REQ'D

application patches (vendor software)

application software installation

application upgrades

backups unscheduled requests

concurrent manager add/delete

database account add/change/delete

NOT REQ'D

database creation

database expansion

database exports (special)

database exports (standard)

NOT REQ'D

database gzip start/stop

database gzips (not through cron ” manual runs)

database imports

database indexes rebuild

NOT REQ'D

database moves

database ongoing purging

NOT REQ'D

database purges special/initial

database start/stop

database table defrag

NOT REQ'D

database tuning

hardware repairs

REQ'D

hardware upgrades

REQ'D

links adds/ drops

modify /etc/system file

modify alarms

REQ'D

modify automounts

modify backup/gzip schedules

modify crontab - application

modify crontab - dba

NOT REQ'D

modify crontab - system

modify init.ora

modify log purges

modify oracle listeners/tnsnames

modify purge scripts

modify UNIX scripts

monitor tools add/change/delete

network changes

REQ'D

new plants/factories

OS tuning

REQ'D

OS upgrades

REQ'D

paging add/change/delete

NOT REQ'D

PE installation

PE patches

printer add/change/delete

printer jobs cancellation

NOT REQ'D

printer start/stop

NOT REQ'D

reboot servers

refresh brando application software

REQ'D

system maintenance

tape creation (special)

REQ'D

tape creation (standard)

NOT REQ'D

UNIX account add/change/delete

NOT REQ'D

UNIX mail changes

NOT REQ'D



IT Services Costs, Metrics, Benchmarking and Marketing
IT Services: Costs, Metrics, Benchmarking and Marketing (paperback) (Enterprise Computing Series)
ISBN: 0132621959
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2000
Pages: 93

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