{"id":7115,"date":"2017-06-27T18:22:52","date_gmt":"2017-06-27T18:22:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/multiacademstg.wpengine.com\/20000academy\/?p=7115"},"modified":"2024-12-12T13:56:00","modified_gmt":"2024-12-12T13:56:00","slug":"tips-and-tricks-for-using-the-itil-standard-change-mechanism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/blog\/2017\/06\/27\/tips-and-tricks-for-using-the-itil-standard-change-mechanism\/","title":{"rendered":"Tips and tricks for using the ITIL standard change mechanism"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Every now and then, there is a need to make an easy, minor change. For instance, most people (be it a user, or someone from the IT Service Management (ITSM) team) don\u2019t consider resetting a password to be a \u2013 change. But, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/what-is-itil\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ITIL<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 it is.<\/p>\n<p>To dive deeper, ITIL recognizes different kinds of changes. That\u2019s logical, because changes are different in many respects (a bit more about this later). For the purpose of this article, let\u2019s consider changes like the example above, i.e., something that doesn\u2019t actually look like a change, but it is. More precisely \u2013 a standard change.<\/p>\n<h2>Standard change \u2013 What is it?<\/h2>\n<p>So, not every change is \u2013 a change. Yes, there are differences. For example, reinstalling someone\u2019s PC is not the same as changing operating systems (e.g., Windows 7 to Windows 10) for a company of, let\u2019s say, 1000 employees.\u00a0 Budget, scope, risks, resources . . . there are a lot of differences between them, aren\u2019t there? Though both examples are, actually, changes \u2013 it\u2019s obvious that they are different.<\/p>\n<p>First things first \u2013 what is a change? According to ITIL, a change is \u201c<em>the addition, modification or removal of anything that could have an effect on IT services.<\/em>\u201d The ITIL approach to Change Management, as well as different types of changes, is explained in the article <a href=\"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/knowledgebase\/itil-v3-change-management-at-the-heart-of-service-management\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">ITIL V3 Change Management \u2013 at the heart of Service Management<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>A standard change is a pre-authorized change with low <a href=\"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/?rel=risk-management&#038;doc=risk-management-policy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">risk<\/a> and an approved budget. Pre-authorized means that there is no authorization procedure needed. Implementation activities are well known and proven. Budget is preordained (usually in the scope of the budgeting process). There are no significant risks related to such changes, as everything is clear and well understood.<br \/>\n<div id=\"middle-banner\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><script>loadMiddleBanner();<\/script><br \/>\n<div id=\"side-banner-trigger\" class=\"banner-shortcode\"><\/div><\/p>\n<h2>How to use it?<\/h2>\n<p>By using a standard change, you have the opportunity to put under control some routine task that impacts IT services or users, without creating a complex environment that will slow down the process. In order to have an efficient standard change process, here are a few tips on how to handle them:<\/p>\n<p><strong>Logging \/ documenting<\/strong> \u2013 I\u2019m sure that most of you are familiar with the <a href=\"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/documentation\/request-for-change-and-change-record-iso-20000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Request for Change (RfC)<\/a>\u00a0\u2013 a common form that triggers a change. And, that\u2019s correct; i.e., this is the way to initiate the change procedure. But, how about standard changes \u2013 do they need a RfC? Well, not such a formal one, but they do.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/documentation\/service-request-record-iso-20000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Service requests<\/a>\u00a0are the ideal way to handle standard changes (read more about managing service requests in the article <a href=\"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/blog\/2017\/02\/28\/managing-service-requests-in-itiliso-20000-using-the-service-request-record\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Managing Service Requests in ITIL\/ISO 20000 using the Service Request record<\/a>). It could be argued whether standard changes need to be documented at all, but from my experience \u2013 do it. Yes, it\u2019s not a big issue if someone requires a password change, but if half of the company requires password changes after you change the password complexity \u2013 that could be problematic.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Plan it well<\/strong> \u2013 Standard changes are not complex changes, but they could (if not performed correctly) cause harm all the same. Take, for example, the above-mentioned password change. One way to handle such a change is that everyone can call in and request a password change, and the other way is to introduce (at least) some identity check.<\/p>\n<p>To be honest, it\u2019s quite difficult to resolve secure password changes, particularly in bigger organizations. But, some level of security needs to be in place. What\u2019s important is that whatever the change (a password change, in this case), a defined, proven, and agreed set of activities must be established. And, I would add (because I have seen some bad examples) \u2013 communicated to all relevant parties. That could include users, as well as ITSM (IT Service Management) staff. Regular monitoring regarding whether the change procedure is followed (and efficient) is also something I would recommend.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Manage your routine activities<\/strong> \u2013 A standard change is your chance to get (at first glance) some routine activities under control. That could be something like a user\u2019s PC reinstallation or desktop setup with a standard set of applications\/tools (usually pre-budgeted), moving a user\u2019s equipment (e.g., desktop, monitor, and printer) from one place to another, minor changes to some application (e.g., standard application patching), extending your storage area, etc.<\/p>\n<p>Although standard changes sound simple, every organization needs to decide for itself which kind of changes are going to be standard changes. To decide that, consider the risks related to that change, costs (are they known or not, how high are they), the impact (local, e.g., a single user, or the whole company), etc.<\/p>\n<h2>The benefits<\/h2>\n<p>So, as you can see, standard changes are not some complex issue, and they don\u2019t generate significant costs or require many resources. But, on the other side, they need to be controlled (like many other things in the scope of ITSM). Control sounds bureaucratic, but actually, it\u2019s your chance to get feedback regarding usage of (ITSM) resources, user behavior, or even (potential) pitfalls.\u00a0 What you do with the recorded information \u2013 well, that\u2019s up to you. But, what I see as an argument with regard to recording standard <a href=\"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/documentation\/change-management-policy-iso-20000\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">changes<\/a>\u00a0is that it\u2019s your opportunity to keep control, not just over your services, but over your users\u2019 behavior as well.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFor what purpose?\u201d someone could ask. It\u2019s improvement \u2013 not only for ITSM processes and teams, but for users as well. By initiating many standard changes, it implies that your users are stuck somewhere. Help them, and you have helped yourself. Further on, once improvement is implemented (based on analysis of standard changes), your users will feel better, too. No matter whether they know it or not, it\u2019s for mutual benefit.<\/p>\n<p><em>To implement ISO 20000 easily and efficiently, use our<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/iso-20000-documentation-toolkit\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">ISO 20000 Documentation Toolkit<\/a> <em>that provides step-by-step guidance for full ISO 20000 compliance.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Every now and then, there is a need to make an easy, minor change. For instance, most people (be it a user, or someone from the IT Service Management (ITSM) team) don\u2019t consider resetting a password to be a \u2013 change. But, according to ITIL\u00a0\u2013 it is. To dive deeper, ITIL recognizes different kinds of &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":7116,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[351,344,570,599],"class_list":["post-7115","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blog","tag-change-management","tag-itil","tag-service-request","tag-standard-change"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7115"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":17942,"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7115\/revisions\/17942"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7116"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7115"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7115"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/advisera.com\/20000academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7115"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}