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Chapter 6 ■ Service Transition
In this activity, the role of the change manager is critical as the change manager
alone would have visibility across the organization’s changes and are in the best position
to identify conflicts, if any arise. For fantasy fanatics, you could think of change managers
as the first line of defense against potential malicious changes.
I worked as an enterprise change manager at one stage in my career. The role was
daunting, and knowing that the entire billion-dollar organization depended on your
foresight and analysis was a scary thought. It was a challenging role that I enjoyed during
my heydays in an operations role.
6.4.1.7.3 Authorize Build and Test
The change manager calls for a CAB meeting of all stakeholders, from technical and
business lines in the organization. I will explain CAB in detail in the next section.
In the CAB meeting, the change manager chairs the meeting and presents the
change. The CAB provides its approval for building and testing the change. The forum
provides authorization for developing the change, and this is the most critical approval in
the change management process.
6.4.1.7.4 Build and Test
The build and test process, which includes software development, unit testing, system
integration testing, and user acceptance testing, is not part of the change management
process. I have included it under the change management process to provide continuity
in the process activities. These activities belong to the release and deployment process,
which is the next process discussed in this chapter.
6.4.1.7.5 Authorize Implementation
The test results are presented back to the change governance body: change management
and the CAB. Based on the results, the change management team provides authorization
to implement the change in the production environment.
This is yet another important activity, as all the identified testing activities must
be completed successfully before the change is allowed to be implemented into the
production environment.
6.4.1.7.6 Implementation and Verification
The implementation and verification process is not part of the change management
process per se. Like the build and test activity, this one comes under the release and
deployment management process.
In this activity, the technical team will deploy the change in the production
environment during the approved change window and perform postimplementation
verification to ensure that the change is successful. If the change is not successful, it will
be rolled back to the previous state if possible.
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