Branimir Valentic
October 4, 2016
Did you know that changes make up a significant source of new incidents? Sure, here I mean unsuccessful or poorly made changes. Actually, no one likes them, neither the business nor IT. A newly created incident is one of the consequences (a tangible one) of such changes, but frustration, the start of a blame culture, and looking for the “guilty one” are intangible consequences with far-reaching effects. ITIL, as well as ISO 20000, provide a lot of applicable elements to put management of changes under control.
Having a process in place (Change Management, in this case) is one side of the coin. The flip side is to have someone accountable for the process and related activities. That’s the Change Manager. Having responsibility for such an important process like Change Management sets many requirements for the Change Manager. Let’s see the characteristics and activities of the Change Manager.
Other than someone being employed as a Change Manager (i.e., it’s someone’s job), according to ITIL – Change Manager is a role. Let me explain this particular role. So, the Change Manager is a person with a respective set of:
There is one more characteristic that the Change Manager has to have – being responsible. Since the consequences of changes are highly visible to customers (and could be far reaching), it’s important that the Change Manager has a high sense of responsibility for the work he performs.
So, as you have learned so far, the Change Manager has a pretty broad set of characteristics. That implies – a multidisciplinary person. So are the activities. Here is what Change Managers do:
Smaller and larger organizations can have one more difference; i.e., a smaller organization will have one Change Manager (usually having responsibility for some of the other processes, e.g., Service Asset and Configuration Management), but a larger organization can have two or more of them.
Neither ITIL nor ISO 20000 contains a detailed description of the Change Manager role. But, describing in more details, ISO 20000 or ITIL will give you a pretty good idea of the job of the Change Manager.
Comprehensive IT SM organizations usually support dozens (or more) services. That means that changes are numerous and need to be implemented quickly. That puts additional pressure on Change Managers, who need to make quick decisions and move away from lengthy and bureaucratic processes.
Hiring a Change Manager can be challenging. But, once you have a person, and changes implemented prove the quality of his work – don’t let him go. One sloppily implemented change can mean life or death for your company. So, if you have a good Change Manager, do whatever you can to make him satisfied. It will pay back, many times.
Use this free ITIL or ISO 20000 Gap Analysis Tool to compare your Change Management process with ISO 20000 requirements, i.e., ITIL recommendations.