Change Management Question

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Hi Jo and thank you for everything.
wanted to ask, who should be raising the change request in large organizations.

is it the person requesting the change, or the person implementing the change?

for example.
if the Service Desk person noticed that one of the application is not working, as a new firewall port needs to be opened.
that personnel doesn't have access to the firewall, and should raise a request to the networking team to implement this.
as it is a change on the firewall, a change request should be created, and wondering who is best fit of doing so?

Hi Ehab,

In theory anyone can raise a change request. It really depends on the policies in place. I can give you a few options:

When Problem Management determines that root cause of an incident and needs to make a change to fix the problem then a Change Record should be raised. This is more efficient if done automatically by the tool at the time of Problem determination.

When a user requires a small functionality change to an application then that could be raised as a Change Record either by a user-portal or a Service Desk analyst (this is different to major functionality changes that need to go through customers to the BRM).

When a developer or technical support analyst perceives a defect, error, or problem that requires a change, then they should raise a Change Request.

When any user or analyst identifies an opportunity for improvement then that can be raised in the Continual Improvement Register, which could then evolve into a Change Record following evaluation OR it can be raised immediately as a Change Record and be evaluated by the CAB. The latter would occur when Continual Improvement has not evolved within the organisation.

The best guidance I can give is to follow your internal policy, but best practice encourages the flexibility that allows all stakeholders to raise Change Requests. I hope that the examples will add some context for you.

Thanks very much
Jo

I have often asked myself the same question. As the instructor has made a good point, it also depends on the culture, type of business you are in and type of change requested. Here are some good points to consider:

1. Change requests and request for change (RFCs) are different, according to ITIL. Most end-users should initiate basic change requests. RFCs on the other hand, can be submitted by business users and/or IT staff, depending upon their technical knowledge of the change. Either way, the requester, has to own the request and be able to explain it technically and discuss the benefits, risks, etc to the change advisory board.

2. If an IT person opens or requests a change or RFC, I believe it should not be the implementer, as he/she can influence the change to be approved by persuading change management that the change is needed, etc. In other words, this person is biased. In that case, a neutral third person from IT, can be requester of the change.

3. I personally believe a change request/RFC should be initiated by a business user. A change coordinator can help to create or submit the RFC, however, the owner is the person can speak to the value, benefit, risk etc, The business user is ultimately the person who benefit from the change, etc.

4. IT personnel can and should open a change request/RFC in response to an incident. In that case, it makes sense for them to be the change owner. Needless, to say, they should consult with the users to make sure the change will solve the problem or error.

There are other factors to consider, for example do you have a CAB, do you have a formalized request process, is your business regulated by the government, etc. but at least you have another professional's viewpoint on this topic.

I hope this helps.

@Tom-Levinson Hi, I think I agree that it depends.

I think that most users would raise service requests through the Service Desk practice and Service Request Management practice, and that these would become Standard Changes, because they are low risk and pre-defined, and so can become low-risk and pre-authorised Standard changes.

But bigger changes are ones that are called Normal Changes and then it depends who in your organisation you want to raise the Request for Change (RFC).

In my organisation, working under ITIL v3 at present, if I wish a change then I can raise the RFC directly, and then my change enablement colleagues take it through the change advisory boards (CAB) to seek approval for it. Sometimes/often I ask my colleagues for help in putting my RFCs onto our (forward) change schedule, after I have written a customer briefing document to describe the RFC.

ITIL is not prescriptive, so you can chose which roles in your organisation would raise the RFCs, but user roles often raise them through the Service Desk practice and the Service Request Management practice.

Cheers, Tony