The 4 Types of Changes

When you select 'Create New' under the change field, you are met with four change options:

• NORMAL: Changes without predefined plans require approval and/or CAB authorization.
• STANDARD:Select from available pre-approved change templates. These changes do not require approval.
• EMERGENCY:Unplanned changes necessary to restore service. These changes require no authorization and progress from New to Review.
• EXPEDITED: Near term planned changes requiring accelerated authorization. These changes require CAB authorization only.
• NOTE: It is important you understand the Change Request Lifecycle which you can view at KB0018317.

Standard Change

The most common type of change is a Standard Change. Standard changes make use of a pre-authorized Standard Change Template which is submitted by the requester to the change approver for review and scheduling. 

Standard Change - A change that is pre-authorized and is created from an active Standard Change Template and has the following attributes:

• Low risk/regularly occurring
• Well- documented with specific procedural instructions
• Clearly defined roles and responsibilities
• Known duration
• High success rate

Standard Change Template - A pre-populated Request fro Change (RFC) that, when active, is used to create Standard RFCs. Must be completed for every Standard Change.

Change Approver - Typically fulfilled by the Service Owner and responsible for review, scheduling (publishing to Maintenance Window on the Change Calendar), and authorization of RFC's. 

Next, the Change Implementer (often, the same person as the Change Requester) executes the change and verifies the result. if the change is successful, the Change Requester closes out the RFC.

If the change failed, a Post Implementation Review (PIR) meeting and a report is required. Failed Standard Changes additionally require a review of the Standard Change Template.

Normal Change

A Normal Change has the following unique attributes:

• Does not have the same low risk or repeatable quality of a Standard Change
• Has a nonzero impact to customers of the IT service
• Does not need to be implemented immediately as with Emergency changes or within 48hrs as with an Expedited change
• Normal changes pass through all stages of the Change Lifecycle.
• This is the only change type to pass through the Assess lifecycle stage, requiring action by the Change Reviewer.

Change Reviewer - Validates that the change is justified, technically ready, and has a sound Risk Assessment Value (RAV) with appropriate mitigations in place.

Expedited Change

Requires accelerated authorization but does not meet the requirements for an immediate Emergency Change. Think, "accelerated Normal change".

An Expedited Change has the following unique attributes:

• Normal Change requires implementation ahead of the communication lead time
• Implementation does not need to occur within forty-eight (48) hours.

Emergency Change

An emergency Request for Change (RFC) will be submitted after implementing a change to resolve an outage or prevent an imminent outage.

An Emergency Change has the following unique attributes:

• Resolves or prevents an imminent outage, system degradation, or service failure.
• Implementation must occur within forty-eight (48) hours
• Emergency RFCs move from Create directly to Review and may not be cancelled because the change has already been implemented as part of resolving the incident.

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