Availability Guide for Change Management

Change Control
Availability Guide for Change Management–125506
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Phase 2—Change Planning
Determining When to Make the Proposed Change
You can use the following check list to determine when to schedule the proposed
change:
•
Can you, or should you, combine the proposed change with other planned outages to
minimize planned downtime?
•
Which days of the week or time periods are or are not available for planned
downtime? Are there certain days in the month that must be avoided?
•
What are the resource availability constraints and deadlines?
•
When is the time of least impact on system and application availability?
•
If this is a major change, can it be done in stages? For example, by separating major
database changes and major functional changes to the system, the risk of damage to
the database is minimized, and the ability to recover is simplified.
•
If the change must be made to multiple systems, should the systems be changed
sequentially or simultaneously?
•
What are the time-dependent milestones? For example:
•
Are there lead times for equipment ordering, delivery, and installation that must
be considered?
•
Is site preparation necessary for additional power, air conditioning, and
communications lines?
Creating a Change Plan
A change plan is a detailed plan describing how the change will be implemented. A
change plan should include the following:
•
A sequence of events, including “go/no go” criteria
•
A schedule for implementing the change
•
A contingency or recovery plan with written instructions in case the change does not
work
•
Test and verification plans
Once the change plan is created, the person or group responsible for change control
should solicit feedback and obtain management approval (with signatures) from all
affected groups.