Change Management Process

Technology Change Management in the University environment exists to improve day-to-day operations for the organisation by minimising user impact and having standardised procedures for managing change-related activities.

There are two different Change Management Processes that are used within the University environment: Normal and Emergency. More information about the different change processes and FAQs can be found under normal change management process and emergency change management process.

Changes should generally take place within one of the two weekly predefined maintenance windows. All changes should be scheduled to take place within these windows to minimise service disruptions for end-users at times of least impact. Special consideration should be given to our and their hours of operation details at the bottom of their page.

  • What is a technology change?

    A Technology Change is any change to an IT Service is the process of moving a particular IT system from one defined state to another. It's the addition, modification or removal of a configuration item that could have an effect on IT Services.

    An example of this would be applying patches to upgrade a system from one version to another, or modifying a system to change its functionality.

    In these situations, the Change Management Process must be followed to ensure that:
    • The risk exposure is accurately captured and optimised
    • The likelihood of unplanned outages/disruptions to services are mitigated
    • All planned outages/disruptions to users are correctly managed and communicated

    Please remember that the Change Management Process is not responsible for identifying components affected by change. This is covered under Service Management where we link the systems used to supply the services consumed.

  • When to use the change process

    To understand whether you need to use the Change Management Process, you should consider the following:

    • Are you making a change to production systems or services that can interrupt the provision of a current service to our customers?
    • Are you changing UAT systems that may similarly impact customers or affect other areas within Information Technology and Digital Services who have a vested interest?
    • Are you making changes to production systems or services that will change the current state of these systems or services, even though there is no associated service interruption (eg version upgrades)?

    Unless you have confidently answered allÌýthe questions above with a ‘No’, you must follow one of the two Change Management Processes.

    If you’re still unsure if you need to follow the Change Management Process, make sure to get in contact with your Technology Change Management team.

    Note: There are also special considerations that you should review, found below.

  • Exceptions and special considerations

    Development environments

    In most situations, development systems and environments will not come under change control and a request for change is not required. Changes made will still need to be managed by the responsible group(s).

    Services transitioning to production

    Any IT service that is about to transition to production must complete operational support readiness acceptance, through the Production Transition process. This will also involve an RFC record entered into the Change Management Process. Contact the Change Management team for further information regarding Production Transition.

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Contact the Change Management team

For any questions about the change management process please contact theÌýIT Service DeskÌýon 33000 or email the Service ManagementÌýteam.

Please don't hesitate to contact us with any business critical eventsÌýyou wish to add to the forward schedule of change and will we attempt to coordinate technology changes to not impact the event.