A change is essentially an addition, modification or removal of anything that can affect IT Services. The scope should include changes to all architectures, processes, tools, metrics and documentation, as well as changes to IT services and other CIs.
Changes can be standard (low-risk, pre-authorized or recurring changes) or non-standard (emergency changes).
Once a change is requested for, elaborate planning is required for its execution. And just in case everything does not go as smoothly as planned, having a back-out plan helps you stay prepared.
Let’s see how Change Management works in Freshservice.
Creating Changes
To create a new change,
Click on + icon (New) in the top-right corner and click Change.
Enter the details for the change in the form and click on Save.
Adding problems to a change
Once a change is requested for, adding all the problems that triggered it helps add context to the request. If the change request is initiated from a problem’s detailed view, it is linked to the change automatically. You can add the others manually.
To add problems to a change:
Go to the change’s detailed view and click on Associate button at the top right corner of the screen.
Click on Existing Problem
In the list of Problems that pops up, select the ones that need to be linked and click on Link.
You can also add problems by clicking on Associations > +Associate > Existing Problem from the Associations option present below the change description.
The linked problems can then be viewed by clicking on the Associations button. If a problem needs to be removed from this list, hover over it, click on the ‘minus’ sign next to it and click Detach.
Adding Incidents to a Change
You can even add associated incidents to a change to provide a more complete picture. You can add two types of incidents.
Incidents that initiated the change request.
Incidents that were caused by the change.
To add incidents to a change,
- Go to the change’s detailed view and click on Associate button at the top right corner of the screen.
Select the appropriate option to add the incident - Initiating the change or Caused due to the Change
You can also associate tickets to the change by clicking on Associations > +Associate and selecting from the two options.
From the list of incidents that pop up, select the ones that you need to link to the change and click on Link.
Associating assets
Since Frehservice is integrated with the asset management module, you could associate an asset linked to the change request. This way admins and agents can see the various other assets linked and asses the impact and risk for that particular asset.
- Click on Assets -> Associate Asset
- Search for the asset right away or select a category then choose the number of assets and click Associate to add them to the change request.
3. You could also click on the individual asset from the Assets tab to know any further details, components and it's relationship with other assets in the organization.
Adding planning details
Once a change request is initiated, you need to plan the implementation of the change before
you can send it for approval. As you do, keep updating the change entry in Freshservice.
On the change’s detailed view, you can add the following planning details:
Reason for Change
Impact
Rollout Plan
Backout Plan
To add planning details to a change,
To add these details to the change, visit the change’s detailed view and click in the
corresponding box.
Enter the information and format it. Attach any relevant file that might provide additional
information by clicking on Attach file and click Add.
Change Activities:
In the Activities tab in a Change request, agents and admins can get a glance of all the activities transpired so far, right from the when the change was created, requesting for CAB approval, to the transitions throughout the lifecycle and thereafter. Similarly, you could view the changes triggered due to automation rules.
