IT Change Management Process Guide

Why Change Management?

The majority of IT outages are caused by changes. A change management process ensures every change is planned, tested, approved, and reversible.

Change Types

• Standard change: Pre-approved, low-risk, follows documented procedure (monthly patches)
• Normal change: Requires approval from Change Advisory Board or designated approver
• Emergency change: Required to fix critical issue. Fast-tracked with post-implementation review

Change Request Template

• Change description and justification
• Impact assessment (what systems affected)
• Risk assessment (what could go wrong)
• Rollback plan (how to undo if it fails)
• Testing results
• Approval signatures
• Implementation date and time