Related Articles

• Change Management - ITIL Process
• DataImporter - Import Change Status Transitions
• Project Management in Octopus
• Deployment Calendar
• Task Management

Introduction

This article describes the configuration and functional use of the module; you will also find elements explaining the link between the functionality and the best practices.

For starters, the Changes module allows you to capture and follow your changes in a centralized way, which is the first key factor in the improvement of change management. According to ITIL (refer to the Change Management - ITIL Process article for more information), all changes without exception should be recorded, validated, authorized, prioritized, planned, tested, implemented, documented and reviewed in a controlled manner. Indeed, any change performed outside of this context puts the stability and reliability of the infrastructure at risk, and consequently, the availability of related IT services. Depending on the organizational context, the scope of Change Management could vary, but some activities should not be neglected. 

The Changes module gives you a structure that allows you to document, build, approve, test and follow all your changes. You should define in advance how you want to manage your changes and use the tool accordingly.

In establishing the bases for the process and the configuration of the tool, there is no need to aim for perfection. As surprising as it might sound, it is not unusual to see change "management" in an Excel spreadsheet - not to mentioned those who get implemented at any time of the day, without authorization, impact analysis, rollback plan or documentation. For many organizations, recording all changes in a change management tool will represent a major transition. 

Creating a Change

Changes are created from the Changes module by clicking Create a change. This action opens the New change window. 

A unique request number will be allocated once the change is created. Note that there are three mandatory fields to enter:

• Category
• Submitted by
• Subject

The following sections explain the content of the creation form.

Top part of the Form

The New change form is split in two parts. Here is an image and a complete description of the fields. 

Lower Part of the Form | Tabs

The lower part of the New change form contains several tabs detailed bellow.

Changes Module Configuration

Items of changes Categories, Status and Templates can be configured in Tools > Reference data management > Change. 

Category Management

Add a category

1. Go to Tools > Reference data management > Change > Categories
2. Right click and select Add
3. Enter the name of the category in French
4. Enter the name of the category in English
5. Enter its position in the list of categories
6. Save

Deleting a Category

Right click on the category and select Delete.

Status Management

Add a Status

1. Go to Tools > Reference data management > Change > Status
2. Right click and select Add
3. Enter the name of the status in French
4. Enter the name of the status in English
5. Enter its position in the list of status
6. Save

Deleting a Status

Right click on the status and select Delete.

 

Status Description

Most of these status come from the ITIL literature and the descriptions are for reference purposes only and do not represent the reality of all IT organizations. 

• New: status of a change at creation
• Under analysis: according to the information provided for the change, the risk, benefit for the business, costs, impacts are acknowledged and the following points are validated; is the change in the right category, with the right approval level, does it need to go to the CAB, are all the required tasks there, etc. If some information or documents are missing, the change is returned to the initiator
  • Under Construction: once the change has been validated, the person responsible for the change can start the work required to get to the deployment of the change. Depending on the scale, he will have a contingency plan and document tests to help the CAB evaluate if the change can go into production
• In Approval: status of a change that is waiting on the CAB approval. If refused the change can be resubmitted to the CAB at a later date
• Being Deployed: deployment of the change in production. It can be done in multiple phases; the deployment tasks control this aspect
• Implemented: the change has been implemented in production. For a while it is watched to make sure the change is not the cause of new incidents, if it's the case you will need to decide if a new change is required
• Closed: the change has been implemented with success. You can use an activity type to specify the results of the change: success, partial success, rollback applied or other. This contributed to identifying the change management elements to improve l to increase the success rate
• Refused: status of a change that was refused 
• Canceled: status of a change that was opened by mistake

 

Status Transition

The status transition is a mechanism that we have built to control the cycle of a change, from its creation until its closure. In Octopus, the transition is based on the category of the change. For example, a standard change is by definition a pre-authorized change with pre-defined steps, it will not need to go through the In Approval or Under analysis to be executed. However, a major change has an implementation cycle that is more complex; because it represents increased risk and impacts, it must go through a more controlled cycle.

In order to apply a controlled status transition in Octopus, you can import the possible transitions with DataImporter for each change category. You decide what transitions are allowed or not, depending on the level of control that you want to impose in the change lifecycle. For example, below you can see a representation of the transitions for standard and significant changes, we have allowed the assignee to go back to the previous status for more flexibility.

We propose a default transition model for the standard, minor, significant and major categories, from which you can work. You can find this model in the DataImporter - Import Change Status Transitions article.

Template Management

Change templates allow to create reusable models for certain change categories. They are widely used to define standard changes. They help define some default fields as well as a basic workflow that can be adjusted according the needs of the change. It also makes the creation of a change easier and more consistent for Octopus users.

Change templates defined in the reference data management are accessible from the change creation window: 

How to Create a Change Template

You can create a change template or category (folder). The category allows to create a logical structure for the change templates, which renders the selection of the correct template more intuitive when creating a change. 

1. Access the change templates via Tools > Reference data management > Change  > Templates
2. Right click and select Add. The system will ask if you want a template or a category (folder)

   

3. Category or template

Create a category

• Enter a French and English description and save​

Create a template

• Identification section: 
  • Write the subject (French/English) 
• General tab :
  • Select who manages the change
  • Identify the Category of the change
  • Indicate if this template will be used for Urgent changes
  • Select the Priority, the Service, the Impact on the infrastructure and Impact on the resources

​* Le Category field is mandatory.

• Tasks tab: 
  • We can determine the change workflow by configuring one or more tasks. They can be executed sequentially or in parallel, depending on the workflow of the template. You can configure tasks of the following types; Standard, Approval or Notification. 

    For more information on the task configuration, see the Tasks Management wiki article. 

• ​Attaches files tab:

  • Add files if required

Deleting a Change Template

Right click the template and select Delete. 

Tasks in Change Templates

Just as with the SR types, you can add tasks to change templates. Even deployment tasks.

To find out more, see the Deployment Calendar article. 

 

Proposed Models for Change Management

The following are the proposed models for Change management in Octopus. 

There are 3 types of change - Standard, Normal, that would include minor, significant and major changes, and Urgent. Each type would contain models designed to handle the process flow. A more complete workflow could be created for changes that have more impacts or risks.

• Standard changes: As they are pre-approved, no approval task is required.
• Normal changes: Depending on if they are minor, significant or major, one or more approvals may be required.
• Emergency changes: The ECAB is involved, and the workflow may be different in order to consider the urgent situation.

Permissions

By default, there are four permissions associated to the Changes module:

• Access the change management module
• Create a change
• Delete a change task
• Modify a change

Other permissions can be added and applied to the roles. For more information on this subject, see the Role Management wiki article. 

Metrics

Changes Per Month

In the Statistics module, there is a report named Changes per month; you get different results according to the following parameters and/or filters:

• Changes per month: New and/or Closed and/or Open
• Effort per month
• You can select a range of dates
• You can designate a priority
• Right click on the graph to display values and/or horizontal lines
• Right click on a bar to display
  • ​the details of this bar in another graph or
  •  to display the data in a list format
• The report can be printed or saved in PDF format

Follow Up Lists

Lists are a good tool to gather other metrics that are very useful to follow changes. Lists like:

• Change by status
• Closed changes
• Change by category
• Changes by impacted CI
• Approved changes
• Implemented changes (for an x period)
• Change tasks by groups
• Closed changes with a post-implementation review
• Proposition change
• Projected Service Outages
• Other

Actions Menu

Create an Incident / SR From This Change

In the context of a change or a project, it often happens that we have internal requests to create. To facilitate the creation of such requests, use the Create Incident / SR from this change action. At the request creation, the name of the person managing the change will be used as the Requester and User of the request and a link will be made between the change and the new request.

 

Deployment Calendar

A deployment calendar opens when you select the Deployment calendar action, it displays the deployment tasks that were configured in the changes. See the Deployment calendar article for more information.