Project Report On

Change Management

(with an IT perspective)

As a part of partial fulfillment of MBA (IT) IV semester

Prepared by:

Rituraj Saikia

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MBA (IT), semester IV IIIT-Allahabad

Project Guide:

Mr. Vijay Chourasia

Faculty Member, IIIT-Allahabad

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Acknowledgement

Success of every project depends largely on the encouragement and guidance of

many others. I take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the people who

have been instrumental in the successful completion of this study project.

I am highly obliged and grateful to Mr. Vijay Chourasia (Faculty Member &

Internal Guide) for providing me with valuable advice and endless supply of new

ideas and support for this project.

I would like to thank Mr. Abhay Kumar Raja (Change Management Team, CSC)

for providing practical exposure of software-system supporting change

management and his valuable guidance during the project work.

My special thanks to Ms. Anurika Vaish (Co-ordinator, MBA program, IIIT-A) for

her priceless guidance, and it goes without saying that without her support this

project would not have been possible.

Rituraj Saikia

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Table of Contents

STATEMENT OF OBJECTIVE ................................................................................................................ 5

INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 6

CHANGE MANAGEMENT ....................................................................................................................... 8

STAGES OF CHANGE PROCESS .................................................................................................................... 9 CONCEPTS OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT .....................................................................................................10 MANAGEMENT'S ROLE ...............................................................................................................................11 CHANGE MANAGEMENT IN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY ..........................................................................12 CHANGE MANAGEMENT (ITIL) .................................................................................................................13

What is ITIL .........................................................................................................................................14 ITIL framework ....................................................................................................................................14

CHANGE MANAGEMENT (AN IT PERSPECTIVE) ...........................................................................15

CHANGE MANAGEMENT ACTIVITIES .........................................................................................................16 ORGANIZATIONAL INVOLVEMENT .............................................................................................................18 CHANGE MANAGEMENT OUTPUTS .............................................................................................................23 CHANGE MANAGEMENT PROCESS CONTROL.............................................................................................24 ROLE OF A CHANGE MANAGEMENT TEAM ................................................................................................24

REMEDY CHANGE MANAGEMENT SUITE .......................................................................................25

HIGH VISIBILITY CHANGE PLANNING ........................................................................................................25 SIMPLIFIED CHANGE PROCESS MANAGEMENT ..........................................................................................26 ABOUT REMEDY, A BMC SOFTWARE COMPANY .......................................................................................27

BORLAND CHANGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS .........................................................................28

BENEFITS OF USING BORLAND CHANGE MANAGEMENT SOLUTIONS .........................................................28 CHANGE MANAGEMENT – A BUSINESS IMPERATIVE .................................................................................29 MANAGING REQUIREMENTS CHANGES ......................................................................................................30 MANAGING PROCESSES AND METHODOLOGY CHANGES ...........................................................................33 MANAGING TECHNOLOGY ADOPTION CHANGES .......................................................................................34 ABOUT BORLAND ......................................................................................................................................35

CSC - CHANGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM: GCARS ..........................................................................36

GCARS (GLOBAL CHANGE ACTIVITY REQUEST SYSTEM) ........................................................................36 SCOPE OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT USING GCARS ....................................................................................37 WHY USE GCARS .....................................................................................................................................37 HOW DOES GLOBAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT HELP ...................................................................................38 WHAT ARE THE CHANGE MANAGEMENT TOOLS ........................................................................................39 CHANGE REQUEST TYPES AND TIMELINE ..................................................................................................40 ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES ...................................................................................................................41 HOW GCARS SOFTWARE WORKS ..............................................................................................................42 GCARS VIEWS .........................................................................................................................................46 CREATING A CHANGE REQUEST ................................................................................................................50 CHANGE DETAILS ......................................................................................................................................52 RISK ASSESSMENT .....................................................................................................................................55

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Immediate E-Mail Notification ............................................................................................................57 Hourly E-Mail Notification ..................................................................................................................57

GCARS SEARCH FUNCTION ......................................................................................................................59 Simple Search ......................................................................................................................................60 Structured Search.................................................................................................................................60

SPECIAL FEATURES IN GCARS .................................................................................................................61 Same Server Record Locking ...............................................................................................................61 Automatic Record Time-out .................................................................................................................62 GCARS Record Archiving ....................................................................................................................62 Dynamic Change Form ........................................................................................................................63 Close Compliance ................................................................................................................................63

ABOUT CSC ..............................................................................................................................................64

RECOMMENDATION ..............................................................................................................................65

CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................................................66

APPENDIX ..................................................................................................................................................67

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................................................72

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Statement of Objective

The object of undergoing this study-project is to develop an understanding and

orientation towards the process of Change Management; and how can we make

use of Information Technology as a leveraging factor. I took this study-project

with a view point of getting a practical exposure of how an enterprise can use

IT-supported procedure to conduct Change Management successfully.

One of the biggest challenges faced by corporate throughout the world,

providing consultancy services, is to implement required changes effectively as

well as efficiently. Since I would be pursuing my career as an Associate

Consultant in Wipro, it was felt that understanding the process and philosophy

of managing change in the industry, preferably by studying a live example of a

company pursuing Change Management, would enhance my capability to plan,

implement and control the process of optimization and change.

At the same time, being a student pursuing MBA (IT) from IIIT-Allahabad,

centre of excellence in Information Technology, it was important that I study

Change Management with an IT perspective.

Therefore, the focus of this study project was directed towards how software-

system and information technology can be used and is being applied for

planning change management; and implementing it in a minimal risk and

productive way.

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Introduction

Change Management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the

changes in processes and technological implementation, to achieve the required

outcomes, and to realize the change effectively within functional domains and

enterprise wide systems.

It is a procedure to ensure that proposed changes are merited and will not

adversely affect other elements of the plan or interdependent plans. Change

must be realistic, achievable and measurable.

There are a multitude of concepts on Change Management and it is very

difficult to distil a common denominator from all the sources that are applying

the phrase to their mental maps of organizational development. But obviously

there is a tight connection with the concept of learning organizations. Only if

organizations and individuals within organizations learn, they will able to

master a positive change.

Change is happening everywhere; its speed and complexity are increasing; and

the future success of organizations depends on how successfully organizations

manage change.

Organizations are spending tens of millions of dollars on change efforts such as

reengineering and information technology installations. ―Transformation‖ is the

new type of change that has emerged, and it is by far the most prevalent and

complex type occurring in organizations today; which is causing virtually all of

the change-related problems. These struggles have given rise to the field of

change management.

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Over the past few decades, organizations have put tremendous resources into

turning their managers into leaders. Now, they must dedicate even more

resources to turning those leaders into change leaders who can successfully

lead the transformation of their organizations. Organization development

consultants must be there to assist. However, to play this critical coaching role,

consultants must also deepen their own understanding of transformation.

Here technology comes as a leveraging factor. The consultants must take a

larger view of what is needed in the organization- a whole-systems, long-term,

process perspective.

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Change Management

Change management is the process of developing a planned approach to change

in an organization. Typically the objective is to maximize the collective benefits

for all people involved in the change and minimize the risk of failure of

implementing the change.

It is the practice of administering changes with the help of tested methods and

techniques in order to avoid new errors and minimize the impact of changes.

Many technical disciplines (for example Information technology) have developed

similar approaches to formally control the process of making changes to

environments.

Change management can be either 'reactive', in which case management is

responding to changes in the macro environment (the source of the change is

external), or proactive, in which case management is initiating the change in

order to achieve a desired goal (the source of the change is internal). Change

management can be conducted on a continuous basis, on a regular schedule

(such as an annual review), or when deemed necessary on a program-by-

program basis.

Change management can be approached from a number of angles and applied

to numerous organizational processes. It’s most common uses are in

information technology management, strategic management, and process

management. To be effective, change management should be multi-disciplinary,

touching all aspects of the organization. However, at its core, implementing new

procedures, technologies, and overcoming resistance to change are

fundamentally human resource management issues.

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Stages of Change Process

Attitudes towards change result from a complex interplay of emotions and

cognitive processes. Because of this complexity everyone reacts to change

differently. On the positive side, change is seen as akin to opportunity,

rejuvenation, progress, innovation, and growth. But just as legitimately, change

can also be seen as akin to instability, upheaval, unpredictability, threat, and

disorientation.

An early model of change developed by Kurt Lewin (1951) described change as a

three-stage process.

The first stage he called "unfreezing". It involved overcoming inertia and

dismantling the existing "mind set". Defense mechanisms have to be

bypassed.

In the second stage the change occurs. This is typically a period of

confusion. We are aware that the old ways are being challenged but we

do not have a clear picture to replace them with yet.

The third and final stage he called "refreezing". The new mind set is

crystallizing and one's comfort level is returning back to previous levels.

An individual's attitude toward a change tends to evolve as they become more

familiar with it. It is management's job to create an environment in which

people can go through these stages as quickly as possible, gradually evolving

into a program that supports compliance, acceptance, and internalization.

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Concepts of Change Management

There are many schools of thoughts and tools that are related to Change

Management. Most of them converge into three principles: The constructivist

paradigm, the systems approach and the quantum principle.

The constructivist principle: Human beings create reality through language –

this is what we call mental maps. Our mental maps are a product of the

individual life experiences and are constantly reinforced by unconscious filters

determining the information we process. No two mental maps are identical.

Communication between people can be enhanced when people acknowledge

this principle and try to explore other people’s maps.

The systemic principle: Have you ever thought about why a flock of birds can

instantly change its direction although biologists have found out that the

reaction time of the individual birds is much quicker than any signal that could

potentially pass through the group? Have you wondered why the stock market

skyrockets one day and plunges another day? Emerging evidence from

complexity science indicates that larges systems show a different behaviour

than their single parts. We try to apply this new science to organizational

development.

The quantum principle: Most of our day-to-day assumptions are still based on

classical Newtonian mechanics, which usually are applied in the work with

organizations. For example, most people would assume that if A is true, B is

false. We base our work on quantum mechanics which teaches us that if A is

true, B is equally true, and that A could not exist without B. Observers (or

consultants, or leaders) are always part of a field, which they influence but by

which they themselves get influenced instantly.

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Management's role

Management's first responsibility is to detect trends in the macro environment

so as to be able to identify changes and initiate programs. It is also important to

estimate what impact a change will likely have on employee behaviour patterns,

work processes, technological requirements, and motivation.

Management must assess what employee reactions will be and craft a change

program that will provide support as workers go through the process of

accepting change. The program must then be implemented, disseminated

throughout the organization, monitored for effectiveness, and adjusted where

necessary.

In general terms, a change program should:

Describe the change process to all people involved and explain the

reasons why the changes are occurring. The information should be

complete, unbiased, reliable, transparent, and timely.

Be designed to effectively implement the change while being aligned with

organizational objectives, macro environmental trends, and employee

perceptions and feelings.

Provide support to employees as they deal with the change, and wherever

possible involve the employees directly in the change process itself.

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Change management in Information Technology

From Carnegie Mellon University's Software Engineering Institute (SEI)

Software Capability Maturity Model (SW-CMM):

The purpose of Software Change Management is to establish and

maintain the integrity of the products of the software project throughout

the project's software life cycle.

Software Change Management involves identifying the configuration of

the software (selected software work products and their descriptions) at

given points in time, systematically controlling changes to the

configuration, and maintaining the integrity and traceability of the

configuration throughout the software life cycle.

The work products placed under software configuration management

include the software products (such as, the software requirements

document and the code) and the items that are identified with or

required to create these software products (e.g., the compiler).

From United Kingdom's Office of Government Commerce (OGC)

Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL):

Change Management is the practice of ensuring all changes to

Configuration Items are carried out in a planned and authorized manner.

This includes ensuring that there is a business reason behind each

change, identifying the specific Configuration Items and IT Services

affected by the change, planning the change, testing the change, and

having a back-out plan should the change result in an unexpected state

of the Configuration Item.

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Change Management (ITIL)

ITIL Change Management is one of the eleven IT Service Management

disciplines in ITIL. The object of Change Management in this context is to

ensure that standardised methods and procedures are used for efficient and

prompt handling of all Changes, in order to minimise the impact of any related

incidents upon service.

Changes in the IT infrastructure may arise reactively in response to problems or

externally imposed requirements, or proactively from seeking imposed efficiency

and effectiveness or to enable or reflect business initiatives, or from programs,

projects or service improvement initiatives. Change Management can ensure

standardised methods, processes and procedures are used for all changes,

facilitate efficient and prompt handling of all changes, and maintain the proper

balance between the need for change and the potential detrimental impact of

changes.

Change management is responsible for controlling change to all configuration

items within the live environment. It is not responsible for change within

ongoing projects, which are controlled by the project change process. However,

close liaison between development project managers and the Change Manager

is expected. Change Management would typically comprise the raising and

recording of changes, assessing the impact, cost, benefit and risk of proposed

changes, developing business justification and obtaining approval, managing

and co-ordinating change implementation, monitoring and reporting on

implementation, reviewing and closing RFCs.

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What is ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library)

The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a customizable

framework of best practices that promote quality-computing services in the

information technology (IT) sector. ITIL addresses the organizational structure

and skill requirements for an IT organization by presenting a comprehensive set

of management procedures with which an organization can manage its IT

operations. These procedures are supplier independent and apply to all aspects

of IT infrastructure.

ITIL framework

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Change Management (an IT perspective)

Change management is an IT service management process that makes changes

in IT environment more orderly and less disruptive. It is a carefully controlled

process for planning and executing changes in information systems. Companies

that implement change management minimize the negative impact of IT

changes on the quality of service delivered to users of companies’ information

system.

Change management helps a company prepare for changes. The effect of

planned changes on the overall IT environment is carefully evaluated. Planes for

implementing changes are thorough and precise. As a result, fewer changes fail.

When changes fail, the change has to be backed out, which means the change

is removed and the system is restored to its previous state.

Change management examines how well proposed changes support a

company’s business mission. Changes that offer a better coordination of IT

services with the company’s business mission receive top priority.

Change management provides important benefits to companies’ that implement

it. When one understands how the process works, one can play his part in

delivering those benefits to the company.

With the support of IT employees contribute to a more orderly and less

destructive change process. Change management is a central process to an

overall improvement using IT services and support. Technology support effective

interaction and communication enhancing change process effectiveness.

Well planned and supported change management process in less likely to

encounter unforeseen problems during changes. Enhanced IT infrastructure

helps reducing the risk and uncertainty associated with implementation of

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changes in the organization. When changes are carefully planned and

communicated, the office works more smoothly. Change management applies

that thinking to IT systems.

Change Management Activities

When one puts too much effort into simple changes it results in wastage of time

and other resources. The goal of change management is to control the process

of implementing changes. However, not all changes are treated equally. Change

management distinguishes between change request and service request.

A change request seeks a significant and usually unplanned

alteration in one or more configuration items. The change typically

affects many users.

Service request seek minor alteration too information systems.

Service request calls for action that follows routine procedures and

affects a small number of users.

The change management process controls the significant changes to the IT

infrastructure, not routine requests for service. Change management

establishes fixed procedures, or change models, to allow others to handle

service requests. However, each change request requires individual attention

from change management. Important changes receive close examination.

Before the change, planners look at the current situation and decide what

needs to be done. After the change, the results are checked to see whether the

plan was successful.

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Five steps in Change management process:

1. Filtering requested for change

2. Assessing the impact of changes

3. Authorizing changes

4. Reviewing changes

5. Closing change requests

The steps of the change management process ensure that the most important

changes are selected, prioritized and completed. The, the results of each change

are evaluated before the change request is set to close status.

Filtering requested for change

Some change requests are impractical and others may be duplicates of change

requests earlier. In the first step of the change management process, duplicate

changes and requests that are impractical are filtered out.

Assessing the impact of changes

Change management should allocate resources to change with the greatest

potential benefit to the company. Change requests are prioritized. To make

sound decisions about the priority of changes, an assessment of the impact,

cost, and benefits of each change must be performed.

Authorizing changes

Proposed changes may have far reaching within a company. For that reason, a

cross section of users and managers evaluate proposed changes. A Change

Advisory Board (CAB) advises the change manager before changes are approved

and scheduled.

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Reviewing changes

With every change implemented the change management teams gain

experience. After the changes have been implemented, a careful evaluation of

lessons learnt is used to improve change process in future.

Closing change requests

The users who substitute a RFC should have an opportunity to test and accept

the result of a change. After users accept the results, change management

finally takes the final step and closes the RFC that instigated change.

Organizational Involvement

Change management doesn’t act in isolation fro rest of the company. Each of

the major activities of change management interacts with the other parts of

company.

The first major activity is logging and filtering change requests. Change

management may receive changes requests from anywhere within the company.

Some change result from an incident in which IT services are interrupted or

configuration items fail to work properly. Other requests may simply ask for

improved or additional service.

All proposed changes should be submitted to change management in a

standardized request for change (RFC) document. When an RFC is received,

change management logs the request and allocates a unique identification

number for the document.

An RFC document provides definitive information about the changes that’s

being requested. Automated change tracking system may enforce a specific

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format for RFC. Many companies tailor the contents to suite their needs.

However, there are some elements that are common to RFC documents in a

wide variety of companies.

RFC

Identification Number

Related Documents

Affected Configuration Items

Reason for Change

Name of Requester

Identification Number

Each RFC is assigned a unique identification number, which is recorded in the

in configuration management database (CMDB). The RFC retains the same

number throughout the life of request.

Related Documents

The problem and incidents that are addressed by a change request are cross–

referenced in the request for change and in the configuration management

database.

Affected Configuration Items

Identifying the configuration items (CI) affected by a change makes it easier to

assess the impact of change accurately. The identification numbers of

configuration items that will be affected by a change are listed in RFC.

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Reason for Change

The main purpose of an RFC document is to provide the rationale for a

proposed change. The reason for request is listed in RFC. Changes that

enhance a company’s ability to achieve its goals are more likely to be

implemented.

Name of Requester

The name of the person requesting the change is included in the RFC. The

person who proposes a change is considered the owner of change. Requests for

additional information are usually sent to the owner.

The second activity in change management is assessment and clarification of

changes. This activity prioritizes pending changes and places them into groups

according to their importance.

Change management allocates resources to changes that have an impact on the

company’s ability to conduct business. Changes with more impact have higher

priority. The urgency of change is the time available to perform the change

without creating negative consequences. An approaching deadline increases

urgency. The urgency of a change is lessened by the availability of temporary

solution or workaround. Changes that have high impact and high urgency will

receive the highest priority. A typical company may classify change as high,

medium, low, or emergency priority. However, every IT department may create

its own system for classifying the priority of changes.

The third activity of change management is approval of changes. The authority

to approve or reject proposed changes is what gives change management the

ability to make the change process more effective. The final decision to approve

or reject changes rests with the manager in charge of change management.

However the change manager does not make approval decisions independently.

The manger consults with the change advisory board (CAB) that includes user

and managers from throughout the company.

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The Change Advisory Board members examine each proposed change from

three perspectives:

Financial

Technical

Business

The board evaluates the changes from a financial perspective to determine

whether the benefits of each change are justifying the cost of completing it.

Evaluation from a technical perspective assures that each change is feasible

and will not have a negative effect on infrastructure. Business evaluation

ensures that changes support the company’s business object.

The fourth activity of change management is planning and coordinating

changes. Change management does not actually implement the requested

changes. However, change management team members help plan the

implementation and then monitor the progress of changes to be sure the plans

are being carried out.

While planning and coordinating changes, Change manager plays a role in each

of the following tasks:

Scheduling

Building

Testing

Implementing

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After a change has been scheduled, change management forwards the approved

RFC to the support team that will build and test the change. The team chosen

to actually build and test a change depends on the type of change. The team

must include people with skill needed for specific building and testing tasks.

Every change has to be tested thoroughly to ensure that the new or altered

components work properly and don’t affect other areas of the infrastructure.

Change Management monitors the implementation of a change to make sure

adequate resources are available and the change happens on schedule. IN,

addition, its change management’s responsibility to make sure back out plans

are created to return the infrastructure to its previous condition if a change

fails.

Finally, after the change has been completed, the change management team

and the members of Change Advisory Board/Team review the change to

determine what went right and what went wrong. Experience and learning

improves the change process for the future.

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Change management outputs

Change management produces outputs that enable members of other IT service

management teams to execute changes. The outputs from the change

management process include:

Forward schedule of changes (FSC)—Upcoming changes must be

scheduled and communicated to other IT service management processes

and to the rest of the company. The forward schedule of changes shows

the changes that have been approved and given a date for

implementation.

Requests for change—RFCs are submitted to change management as

an input for the process. After RFCs are approved, change management

forwards them to release management, the IT service management

process responsible for implementing the changes.

Change advisory board decisions—The deliberations of the change

advisory board provide the basis for the change manager's decisions to

approve or reject proposed changes. The members of the advisory board

help determine if changes make sense from technical, financial, and

business viewpoints.

Change management reports—Change management produces reports

that are sent to senior IT and business managers. Change management

reports allow managers to evaluate the effectiveness of the process in the

past and its direction in the future.

Proposed changes may have far-reaching effects within a company. For that

reason, a cross section of users and managers should evaluate proposed

changes.

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Change Management Process Control

Start—The life cycle begins when requirement for a change is first

noticed by the customer or by the IT staff via monitoring. This is

considered the incident start time.

Detection—The detection time is when the organization is made aware of

the issue.

Diagnosis—At the incident diagnosis time, the diagnosis to determine

the underlying requirement for change is completed.

Repair—The failure is repaired at the incident repair time.

Recovery—The recovery time is the time at which component recovery

has been completed.

Restoration—The life cycle ends when normal business operations

resume. This is considered the restoration time.

Role of a Change Management Team

The team makes sure that employees are aware of an organization’s new

direction through ongoing conversation.

During the change process, many task forces and action teams may be

created. The team co-ordinates the activities of these groups to avoid

overlap and promote communication.

The team needs to be sure that messages coming from leadership are

consistent. If a manager demands more responsibility from a team

member, then necessary support and training must be provided.

The team needs to ensure that protocols are followed and information is

communicated efficiently and effectively to the parties involved.

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Remedy Change Management Suite

Remedy Change Management, an integral part of the Remedy IT Service

Management suite, helps you meet the challenge. Remedy Change Management

enables you to assess the impact, risk, and resource requirements associated

with changes, and then use your assessment to create plans and automate

approval functions to implement those changes effectively and efficiently. The

application’s sophisticated tools facilitate scheduling and task assignment,

specification and assessment of all incident costs for each change request, and

enable performance review and change process improvement. Remedy Change

Management eliminates unnecessary costs by synchronizing and automating

change-related activities across the organization, increasing efficiency and

eliminating unnecessary steps.

High Visibility Change Planning

Remedy Change Management gives you a comprehensive picture of the global

impact of IT changes. You can readily see which IT infrastructure components

or business services are impacted by the planned changes and determine the

availability of the required people to implement the changes. You can also use

the change management database to scope the effort required to implement the

planned changes by reviewing the statistics of similar changes performed in the

past. By identifying in advance the impact of change on the IT infrastructure

and staff, as well as on business services, IT and business managers can work

together to maintain a smooth change process that ensures efficient utilization

of the IT staff and minimizes disruption to the business.

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Simplified Change Process Management

With Remedy Change Management, you can create, track, and manage task

dependencies for controlled, orderly deployment of changes. You can manage

and track individual tasks within a project for dependency, due dates, time

spent, and status. Task sequencing and task dependency enforcement

functions generate automated alerts and notifications, ensuring that all related

tasks are completed in the right order.

Unique approval processes can be defined in which a series of people must

review and approve a proposed change request. Only after approval is granted

can the change request be scheduled. Everyone affected by a change is

informed in advance and can make the necessary preparations to minimize

risk. Escalations, audit trails, and other automated approval process features

keep the change approval process moving forward on a fast track.

The application maintains views of all associated requests and service

requirements, showing the full business context of change operations at all

points in the progression of change tasks. It automatically tailors views to the

user’s role, enhancing usability and productivity.

In addition, Remedy Change Management automatically gathers a variety of

data that permits you to monitor service levels, perform comprehensive post-

mortem analysis of changes, and continually improve change processes. Users

can initiate, approve, and monitor changes from the Remedy Change

Management native client, from a Web browser, or from a wireless device. This

flexibility permits users to participate in the change management process

regardless of where their jobs take them.

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Remedy Change Management delivers time-proven out-of-the-box best practices

and workflow guidelines as defined by the IT Infrastructure Library (ITIL)

Service Support Processes.

About Remedy, a BMC Software company

Remedy delivers Service Management software solutions that enable

organizations to automate and manage internal and external service and

support processes. With more than 7,000 customers worldwide and over 10

years of product development and investment, Remedy, a BMC Software

company, delivers out-of- the-box, best-practice applications that help

customers align service and support with business objectives, improve service

levels, manage assets, and lower costs. All Remedy applications, including Help

Desk, Asset Management, Change Management, Service Level Agreements, and

Customer Support, are built on the highly flexible Action Request System,

empowering customers to easily adapt their Service Management solution to

unique and changing requirements.

http://www.bmc.com/remedy/

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Borland Change Management Solutions

Borland Change Management Solutions help organizations establish a

systematic approach to managing change, enabling a higher return on existing

software development investments through lower costs, accelerated time to

value, and reduced risk.

The software-suite enables the enterprises to leverage Borland Change

Management Solutions to transform their ability to anticipate, plan for, and

accommodates changes in requirements, software processes, and technology.

Benefits of using Borland Change Management Solutions

Reduced Costs

Rework typically accounts for 40% of the total spend of a development

organization with most of the effort focused on correcting requirements

defects. Borland Change Management Solutions deliver effective

requirements practices and infrastructure, enabling organizations to

eliminate much of this IT waste.

Faster Time to Value

Software development teams will experience immediate benefits from

implementing change management, shortening time-to-value for the

solution and accelerating business impact from your software initiatives.

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Lower Total Cost of Ownership

Integrated Borland Change Management Solutions extend and

seamlessly integrate with existing technology solutions. Deployment is

easy, further reducing total cost of ownership.

Global Impact

Whether the organization operates at a single location or across the globe

with distributed development, offshore or outsourced teams, Borland

Change Management Solutions provide a consistent approach to

harnessing change.

Increased Business Efficiencies and Agility

By improving a development team’s responsiveness to change, Borland

Change Management Solutions help corporations respond more quickly

to changing market dynamics, and better leverage information for

competitive advantage.

Change Management – A Business Imperative

Software is increasingly emerging as a source of competitive advantage for

large, global enterprises. Yet, software organizations are unable to respond in a

timely and effective manner to changes stemming from competitive and

customer pressures. This inability to quickly respond hampers business

opportunity and decreases shareholder value.

For enterprises to remain competitive, their software development organizations

must stay ahead of the continuous barrage of changes in product requirements,

technologies, development processes, and deployment environments. This

requires them to effectively address the:

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Inadequate requirements development and management

infrastructure

Weak project management practices

Rapidly changing technologies, development, and delivery platforms

Inadequate quality and configuration management practices

By meeting these challenges with comprehensive solutions that address

process, technology, and people skills in an integrated manner, software

development organizations can begin to realize significant improvements. Their

success, in turn, translates into a strengthened competitive position for the

enterprise and, therefore, significant business value.

Borland solutions enable the transformation of software development into an

accelerated and disciplined approach that aligns people, process, and

technology to maximize the business value of software. Borland Change

Management Solutions address the three key types of change that development

organizations need to manage – requirements change, process and/or

methodology change, and technology change.

Managing Requirements Changes

The flexibility with which requirements are gathered and managed shows how

disciplined an application development process is, according to Gartner

analysts. Development organizations with automated requirements definition

and management environments will better support change control, gain testing

Efficiencies, and reduce future maintenance burdens. The use of requirements

tools will amplify these savings and satisfaction benefits.

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Borland Change Management Solutions incorporate best practices in

requirements definition and management (RDM) and software configuration

management to improve decision-making and take advantage of opportunity.

These solutions provide all of the capabilities that organizations need to address

the most critical changes to support business objectives, including:

Elicitation and Specification: Borland works with software

development teams to establish an effective requirements elicitation

process. Borland® Analyst™ reinforces the process by providing a

dynamic, intuitive requirements capture and management environment

that supports rich content and editing and includes reusable

requirements design templates.

Analysis: Since the root cause of many issues surrounding all changes

(requirements, defects, and tasks) is ambiguity, robust analysis of each

requested change is critical to effective change management. Borland

helps enterprises to establish sound requirements analysis and

specification practices (e.g. use cases and message sequence charts) as a

proactive way to gain more complete requirements. With Borland®

Together™ modeling technology, use-cases can be modeled and

generated directly from requirements.

Validation: The process of validation is critical to surfacing disparities in

stakeholder perspectives and hidden assumptions. CaliberRM, used in

conjunction with Borland® StarTeam®, features customizable workflows

for approvals and electronic signatures to facilitate audit trails. This

documentation can be particularly important for compliance.

Requirements and activity management: To ensure effective change

request management, each member of the development team must be

able to access and understand requirements based on their areas of

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expertise, and then be able to act on them appropriately. Borland helps

enterprises leverage CaliberRM to enable requirements management

responsibilities across roles in the organization, including Business

Analyst, Architect, Developer and Tester. And with StarTeam, teams can

manage the other activities across key roles and throughout the

development lifecycle.

Estimation and impact analysis: Effective change management

includes the consistent capture and archival of historical information for

use in project planning. Borland® Tempo, ™ CaliberRM, and StarTeam

automate estimation and impact analysis activities by allowing project

managers to define multiple scenarios and then perform simulations. The

results are used to statistically analyze the required effort and resulting

impact to project schedule, cost, and quality, and ultimately make the

right business choices.

Software configuration management: Access to and version control of

project assets is most effective when development teams can consistently

store, modify, and build project information reliably throughout the

project lifecycle.

StarTeam software suite allows all roles to work together securely and with

confidence that artifacts will be managed according to overall project goals

and agreed to workflows. This results in more predictable software

application builds, lower overall project cost, and higher software quality.

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Managing Processes and Methodology Changes

Many software development organizations have traditionally lacked well-defined

methodologies for accomplishing day-to-day tasks. However, organizations are

now increasingly adopting formal development processes. Some changes are

sponsored internally by senior management in the form of process improvement

initiatives (e.g. CMMI). Others are mandated through compliance with

legislation such as the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. Additionally, competitive pressures

are forcing organizations to accelerate ―time to market,‖ which requires the

adoption of more modern development methodologies.

Changes to processes and methodologies place significant burdens on an

organization already stretching to deliver against changing business priorities.

Most organizations respond by focusing a disproportionate share of resources

on defining the ―end state‖ vision of the development processes.

Consequently, they do not spend nearly enough effort developing a robust

improvement plan. Not surprisingly, many of these initiatives fail.

Borland has more process improvement experience and the largest team of SEI-

authorized CMMI Lead Appraisers than any other company, due in large part to

its acquisition of TeraQuest in 2004. Borland consultants leverage their

expertise to help IT organizations craft comprehensive solutions that

synchronize changes to processes with appropriate technology and training

programs ensuring substantial and sustainable performance improvement.

These solutions determine and facilitate process changes, while enabling teams

to continue delivering against current initiatives.

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Managing Technology Adoption Changes

Software development is evolving rapidly. Where IT organizations used to

develop and maintain a monolithic application to run an entire operation,

today’s enterprises employ nimble software development teams to meet

dynamically changing market conditions. To achieve and maintain competitive

advantage, organizations are also adopting next-generation technology

paradigms (e.g. Service-Oriented Architectures designed around services

deployed inside and outside of the enterprise).

Building, integrating, and maintaining these composite applications require an

evolution of skill sets and techniques, enhanced with supporting tool sets.

Companies must provide more extensive education and process improvement

training in order to ensure the effective application of these new techniques and

technologies. Borland offers structured, role-based and capabilities-based

curricula for the experienced technology professional, focused on overall team

performance, not just individual proficiency. Offerings include courses

spanning the entire software development lifecycle, and complementary topics

surrounding the deployment of Borland Solutions for Change Management.

With its proven, holistic approach, Borland is uniquely positioned to advance

change management strategies across industries and geographies. For

enterprises seeking software delivery that is on time, on schedule, and at

desired quality, Borland Change Management Solutions effectively align:

People (overcoming human issues and skills enhancement)

Process (repeatable steps)

Technology (collaboration, process instantiation, control, speed, and

efficiency)

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Change Management Product

Borland StarTeam® 2005 provides a complete range of software change

management and configuration management solutions designed to meet the

needs of all development teams according to size, geographical distribution, and

work style.

A robust platform for coordinating and managing the entire software delivery

process, StarTeam promotes team communication and collaboration through

centralized control of all project assets. Protected yet flexible access ensures

that team members can work whenever and wherever they like through an

extensive choice of Web, desktop, IDE, and command-line clients. StarTeam

offers a uniquely comprehensive solution that includes integrated requirements

management, change management, defect tracking, file versioning, threaded

discussions, and project and task management.

About Borland

Borland Software Corporation is the global leader in platform independent

solutions for Software Delivery Optimization. The company provides the

software and services that align the people, process, and technology required to

maximize the business value of software.

http://www.borland.com

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CSC - Change Management System: GCARS

GCARS (Global Change Activity Request System)

CSC has established a set of change management processes (software-system)

to promote the successful introduction of change, minimize risk associated with

change, and sustain a measurable operating quality. Change management

procedures are defined and implemented through the Global Change Activity

Request System (GCARS), a web based change toolset.

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Scope of Change management using GCARS

The change management process is applicable to (but is not limited to) the

following changes to the environment:

Addition/Deletion of Servers

Network Changes (addition of routers, circuits, etc.)

Operating Systems (upgrades or significant configuration changes)

Associated Devices which are shared with other environments

All production application roll-outs and any upgrades to production

binaries

All facilities where the technology resides

Any emergency changes that are made in response to a problem ticket

Any introduction of new equipment, operating systems, in-house

applications or third party software into the production environment.

Why use GCARS

Change Management provides value to an organization as a global risk

management process around the IT environment. There are several reasons for

using GCARS to implement change management procedures in the

environment:

To define what has changed in the environment.

Track changes in the environment to ensure future problems potentially

brought about by change can be easily repaired.

Formulate contingency plans to be implemented in the case that change

has a negative impact on the environment.

Capture and qualify the business, technical, and financial risks

associated with change.

Capture appropriate levels of authorization for change.

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How does Global Change Management help

With all the levels of detail in the change form (database), any activity is

protected by:

Ensuring the change itself is documented

Awareness in the business or technology groups is built

Any testing planned before or during the change is understood

Articulates the procedures which should be followed should the change

fail

Since we do not operate in a vacuum and there are so many plans at different

levels:

Locally, regionally, globally, externally (regulators or vendors)

You can protect your activity’s critical dates and see other people’s

activities

GCARS simplifies the notification process so everyone can be informed in timely

period:

The change form is e-mail enabled

Change owner

Business/department affected

Change assignee

Approvers - Application Mgr., Change Owner Mgr., Operations

Mgr., SDM, Senior Mgr.

Additional notification

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What are the Change Management tools

GCARS (Global Change Activity Request System) is the Change Management

repository which is used to document and track change activity. GCARS has the

capability to:

Notify the parties involved or impacted by the change

Identify conflicts in the planning process by holding all changes from

around the world

Provide important change information to other groups:

Such as, account specific, e.g. Audit, ad quality team, business

continuity, problem management

The Change Management team monitors change quality to the technology

environment:

Change form data is analyzed for information quality

What type of change was approved or rejected

If the change was closed successfully and to plan

What changes are going on within the account - are they

planned or emergency

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Change Request Types and Timeline

Draft GCARS - to save information, does not show up on calendar and

will be removed when start date has passed

Provisional GCARS - are placeholder/heads-up documents and must be

upgraded to a GCAR minimally x weeks before start of activity

GCARS - must minimally be submitted within the account’s planning

rule days prior to their start date start

Approvals must minimally be completed within the account’s

planning rule prior to the change start date

Exception: Break/Fix with problem report number

Submit GCARS well in advance to complete process

GCAR must be

approved x business

days prior to start date

Start

Date

Idea

formation,

Draft CGAR

Create Provisional

CGAR

Submit GCAR GCAR must be submitted x

business days prior to start

date

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Roles and Responsibilities

Submitter

Person who must be authorized to view & submit GCARS

Performer/Staff

Person who does the actual work

Approvers

People who balance risk to business and drivers of change versus the

technical feasibility (cannot be submitter or assignee)

Change Management

Higher level which provides the extra layer of scrutiny and ensure the

change form quality

Optional Senior Approver

When a GCAR is not submitted within the account’s planning rule, the

senior approver accepts the risk of the technical exposure to the

environment that an unplanned change introduces.

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How GCARS software works

In CSC (Computer Science Corporation), change management is being planned,

managed and controlled by using GCARS software system which is a web-

enabled complete portal.

Various change management units of CSC, located throughout the world, are

integrated and function over the net using GCARS. The system is well

supported by robust servers, backed-up database and secured network.

CSC Staff logon

CSC staff use their Lotus Notes short name their CSC Global Pass

password to logon to GCARS.

CSC Customer Logon & Password Change Procedure

CSC customers can be assigned a web logon username and password that may

be used to access CSC web applications. These CSC customer usernames

(Eternal IDs) follow the same security rules as CSC staff usernames and cannot

access GCARS unless they are included in the GCARS security tables. If they

have questions about a CSC External ID, they need to contact their local

change manager.

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Accessing GCARS

To access GCARS enter the URL http://gcars.csc.com/ into the browser.

You are prompted for a username and password.

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After login, the Change Status Screen is displayed. This screen has links to

information regarding the status of all GCARS for the accounts, which you are

authorized to view. It is also used for planning and conflict analysis purposes.

In this screen all change requests for your accounts are categorized according

to their status.

The other standard screens (Start Date; Application; Change Owner; Risk, My

View, Approver View) may be viewed by placing your cursor on the VIEW tab in

the left-side navigation pane.

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Change requests may be in one of the following statuses

Cancelled: submitted change that has been cancelled by the submitter.

Changes Needing Approval: submitted change that is pending review.

Closed: change that has been completed by the GCAR owner and has

finished its verification period.

Completed: change that has been closed by the GCAR owner but has

not yet finished its verification period.

Draft: change writes up in progress and not yet submitted.

Provisional: planning document with a proposed start date that others

can plan around.

Rejected: Approver or Change Management or the system has rejected

change.

Rejected by System: Automatically rejection has been enabled.

Reviewed: authorized Approvers have approved change.

Pending: the local change manager has temporarily taken the change

out of the approval cycle.

Scheduled: change has been approved by the Change Control Board and

is awaiting implementation.

Verification Period As per the GIS Change Process, a period of verification occurs to allow for the

reporting of any post implementation problems or incidents linked with the

change. Low and Medium Risk GCARS remain in Completed status for a

verification period of seven consecutive days; and High Risk GCARS remain in

Completed status for a verification period of fourteen consecutive days. The

GCARS system automatically moves the Completed GCARS to Closed status

once the verification period has concluded.

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GCARS Views

Start Date View The Start Date view displays GCARS sorted by Start Date.

Application View The Application view displays GCARS sorted by application.

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Change Owner View

The Change Owner View displays GCARS sorted by Change Owner.

Risk View

The Risk View displays GCARS sorted by Risk.

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GCARS calculates Risk using values from the pick list items that are selected

for Scope, Impact, Complexity, Severity, Users, and Location Affected. Risk

values are automatically calculated when the GCAR is submitted, saved, or

previewed. Risk is designated as High, Medium or Low.

Assessment is automatically calculated using Risk and the client’s lead-time

rules. Assessment values are Normal, Alert, and Emergency. Dynamic is an

additional Assessment category and refers to change activities that follow the

Dynamic Change Process.

My View

My View displays all GCARS that contain your name regardless of your role in

the GCAR. My View only displays GCARS in active statuses, which means that

Cancelled, Completed and Closed status records will not be visible in your My

View.

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Need To Be Closed View

The Need To Be Closed view displays all the GCARS that you have created and

that are on or past their end date. Once you close or cancel or re-submit a

GCAR in the view, it will no longer appear in your Need To Be Closed View.

Approver View

The Approver displays all GCARS that are awaiting approval and that contain

your name as an approver. Once you approve a GCAR in the view, it will no

longer appear in your Approver View.

Additionally, when there is more than one designated approver (e.g. primary

and back-up approver), then either designee’s approval will remove the GCAR

from the other designee’s Approver View.

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If there are no GCARS awaiting your approval, then the message No documents

found will be displayed.

Creating a Change Request

Selecting the name of the account from the drop down menu will open a New

GCAR Form

Below is the first section of the form in which some of the fields are already

populated by the system:

The name of the account

The current status of the GCAR

The unique GCAR authorization number

The name of the person who created the GCAR and the create date &

time stamp

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Here the person initiating the change provides the following information:

The start date/time and end date/time for the change. The dates can

either be selected from the calendar or entered manually using the

MM/DD/YYYY format.

The time zone where change will occur. GCARS will remember the last

time zone you requested.

Implementation duration and Risk assessment are automatically filled in by the

system when the Change is submitted.

A Provisional GCARS is a planning document with a proposed start date that

others can plan around.

Based on information contained within the GCAR, the Preview link will

calculate and display values for the Implementation duration, the

duration with back out and the Risk assessment fields.

Change Duration includes the total time for the change including time to

back out.

Risk Assessment is automatically calculated based on information you

provided in the Risk Assessment section of the form.

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Change Details

Short Description should be a brief summary of the change being performed.

Change owner area is the technology group responsible for the change. You

can select the appropriate area from the drop down menu. This field is mapped

to the Technology Manager approval.

Type of activity is related to the component being changed. Select the

appropriate activity from the drop down menu.

Reason for change specifies the reason the change is being performed.

System / Device Name is the system or device affected by the change.

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Department/Business of the Change Owner affected should be the group(s)

impacted by the change. This can be selected from the drop down menu and

can include multiple selections. Client and Senior Manager approvals are

mapped to this selection.

Cost Code field is used for account specific reference to project or billing

numbers. Cost Code is not a required field.

Requested by is the person responsible for the technical coordination of the

change. The Requested by field defaults to the person who is creating the

GCAR. This is a free text field and is a required field.

Requestor’s e-mail This field defaults to the person who is creating the GCAR

Click the drop down menu to change the default name or to add additional

Requestors from the address book. Names can only be added by using the

address book pull down. Any names that appear in this field have rights to edit

and close the GCAR. This is a non-required field.

Requestor department is a free format field and designates the area in which

the Requestor works.

Requestor phone number is the number where the Requestor of the change

can be reached. Include all applicable phone numbers: office, pager and cell

phones.

Change to be performed by is the name of the person(s) who will actually

implement the change. The field defaults to the person who is creating the

GCAR. This is a free text field and is a required field.

Assignee e-mail This field defaults to the person who is creating the GCAR

Option to click the drop down menu to change the default name or to add

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additional assignees from the address book is available. Names can only be

added by using the address book pull down. Any names that appear in this

field have rights to edit and close the GCAR. This is a non-required field

Assignee contact number is the number where the person performing the

change can be reached while implementing the change. Include all applicable

phone numbers: office, pager and cell phones.

Detailed implementation plan This field is a Free Form text field. An

explanation should be provided of how the implementation will be performed

and tested.

Backout Plans/Procedures This field is Free Form text field. This field should

include pertinent information regarding how to backout a change if something

goes wrong.

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Risk Assessment

GCARS calculates Risk using values from the pick list items that are selected

for Scope, Impact, Complexity, Severity, Users, and Location Affected. Risk

values are automatically assigned when the GCAR is submitted or saved. Risk

is designated as High, Medium, or Low.

Assessment is automatically calculated using Risk and the client’s lead time

rules. Assessment values are Normal, Alert, Emergency and Dynamic. is an

additional Assessment category and refers to change activities that follow the

Dynamic Change Process.

Normal

Submitted or Re-submitted within Low lead time rule

(e.g. 3 weekdays)

Submitted or Re-submitted within Medium lead time rule

(e.g. 5 weekdays)

Submitted or Re-submitted within High lead time rule

(e.g. 10 weekdays)

Alert

Low, medium or high risk not submitted within the lead time rule

Emergency

Change request submitted on the same day or after the change

planned start date.

Dynamic

Refers to change activities that follow the Dynamic Change Process.

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Scope - this field contains responses that identify the type of component that is

being affected.

Impact - this field contains responses that identify the level of impact to

systems or networks.

Complexity - this field provides responses that identify the intricacy of the

change.

Severity - this field provides responses that identify the potential outage the

change may cause.

Users - this field provides responses that identify the number of users that will

be affected by the change.

Location - this field provides responses that identify the impact to the CSC or

clients sites affected by the change.

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Immediate E-Mail Notification

When submitting or re-submitting a GCAR, there is an option to send an

immediate e-mail. If the immediate e-mail button is pressed, then a single e-

mail message will be sent to all the names that are contained within the GCAR.

The immediate e-mail message is sent in addition to any system generated e-

mail messages.

Here is an example of a GCARS immediate e-mail:

Hourly E-Mail Notification

At the request of your local change management team, GCARS can be

configured to automatically send an hourly e-mail notification for newly

Submitted/Resubmitted or Rejected GCARS.

If the feature is enabled for your GCARS account, the hourly e-mail function

sends one e-mail message per GCAR to each individual associated with the

GCAR for any newly submitted/re-submitted or rejected changes that have

been input into GCARS since the last hourly e-mail. The GCAR account, the

GCAR number & short description, the recipient's role and a link to the GCAR

itself is contained within the body of the e-mail message.

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Additionally, the Change Manager will receive notification of any GCARS that

have moved to Reviewed status since the last hourly e-mail.

The subject line of the hourly e-mail notification contains the recipient’s GCAR

role, the GCAR number & short description and the account name. The From:

portion of the e-mail message is the GCARS system name GCARS

Administrator.

Because an individual can have many roles in a GCAR, the following hierarchy

is being used to identify the recipient's primary role:

If the recipient's name appears in any of the following roles, their primary role

is Change Implementer:

Change submitter/requester; change implementer; approver; change manager;

additional notification

If the recipient's name appears in any of the following roles, their primary role

is Change submitter/requester:

Change submitter/requester; approver; change manager; additional notification

If the recipient's name appears in any of the following roles, their primary role

is Approver:

Approver; additional notification

If the recipient's name appears in any of the following roles, their primary role

is Additional notification:

Additional notification

If the recipient's name appears in any of the following roles, their primary role

is Change manager:

Approver; change manager; additional notification

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Here is an example of the hourly e-mail:

All categories of Approvers must be obtained for the change to be authorized for

scheduling. Changes may be modified and resubmitted for approval. However,

if changes are made after approval, the change must go through the approval

cycle again.

GCARS Search Function

The GCARS Simple and Structured Search functions provide a GCARS user

with the ability to locate records based upon specific criteria. Simple and

Structured search function results are governed by internal restrictions

designed to maintain system performance and effectiveness.

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Simple Search The Simple Search reporting function is used when you are looking for a word

or phrase that might appear anywhere in a GCAR ticket.

Structured Search The Structured Search reporting function is used when you are looking for a

specific accounts, date ranges or specific field contents.

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The following GCAR fields are displayed:

Account Type Of Activity Attendee Location

GCAR Number Reason For Change Applications Affected

Start Date Department/Business Change Tested & Comments

Start Time Cost Center End User Test Needed

End Date Requestor Additional Comments

End Time Requestor Department GCAR Creator

TimeZone Requestor Phone Close Status

Change Duration (mins) Implementer Close Comments

Status Implementer Phone No Close Actual Start Date

Risk & Risk Assessment Sites Affected Close Actual Start Time

Change Description Sites Performed Close Actual End Date

Change Owner Area Attendance Required Close Actual End Time

Special Features in GCARS

Same Server Record Locking When an individual puts a GCAR record in edit mode, GCARS locks the record

to other editors. If another individual attempts to edit the record, the follow

error message will be displayed:

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Automatic Record Time-out

If you do not save a GCAR within 30 minutes, the system will automatically

time-out your edit session.

When the system times-out your session, the following message is displayed to

the screen:

GCARS Record Archiving If a record is 65 days past its end date, GCARS automatically moves the record

to the GCARS Archive database. If a record does not have an end-date (e.g.

Draft GCARS), the system uses the record’s start date for the 65-day rule. Once

a record is moved to the Archive database, it is deleted from the production

database. Archived records cannot be reopened or cloned.

To ensure that end-users do not inadvertently attempt to create a GCAR in the

Archive database, only the account’s GCARS change manager can access the

Archive database.

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Dynamic Change Form

A Dynamic change is a predefined subset of changes that is required for real-

time performance tuning or maintenance activities. A Dynamic change is pre-

authorized by the appropriate Change Owners in conjunction with the Change

Control Review Board. Although Dynamic changes are pre-authorized, a

change request must be submitted for each Dynamic change.

Dynamic changes are exempt from the pre-planning rules that have been set up

for your account. All Dynamic changes are assigned a planning assessment of

Normal. Dynamic changes only require Technical Manager’s approval.

Close Compliance If your local account is using the GCAR Close Compliance feature, special rules

will be automatically applied to changes that you have created and that are

more than one weekday past their end date.

The GCARS system will automatically monitor changes that you have created

and that are in the following status:

Submitted

Re-Submitted

Provisional

Reviewed

Scheduled

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If GCARS detects that one of the changes you created is in any of the above

statuses and that the change has not been closed within one weekday of the

end date indicated on the GCAR form, your name will be included on a close

non-compliance list. Once a day, GCARS will send e-mail to all individual’s

who appear on the close non-compliance list.

If your name is on the close non-compliance list, you will receive the following

screen prompt message when you submit a new GCAR:

About CSC

CSC (Computer Science Corporation) is a global leadership in the information

technology arena; founded on a 45-year record of delivering business results to

clients worldwide. Computer Sciences Corporation provides consulting, systems

integration and design, IT and business process outsourcing, applications

software and IT services. Mission of CSC is to put IT to work in practical,

bottom-line ways.

http://www.csc.com

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Recommendation

When a problem interrupts major services or will have an immediate and severe

business impact, an ―emergency change‖ is needed. The change management is

concerned with the high-priority changes which are to be implemented, but no

consideration is given to changes to be implemented as an act of emergency.

The software suites and systems which I came across (especially GCARS being

used by CSC) follow stringent process of approval and testing before

implementation of change. This may not be appropriate in case of critical

situations.

Change management should therefore incorporate a different process to handle

emergency changes. The emergency process would differ from standard process

in three areas:

Approval

Testing

Failure

In emergency a company may not be able to wait for the change advisory board

to convene and approve a very urgent change. An emergency change advisory

board should be developed consisting of experienced and competent members.

The emergency committee should act rapidly when needed. Such a

management committee should be provided with flexible guidelines and

procedural steps.

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The emergency change process must delay or eliminate testing of change. When

a change must be implemented immediately, there may not be time to test the

change. Testing may be conducted after the change is implemented or could be

skipped altogether.

Conducting the Testing after the implementation is required so that a back-up

plan can be formulated based on the test-results. The plan of action being

implemented can also be modified as per the requirement.

In the standard change process, failed changes are backed out, and previous

status is restored until a new change can be planned and implemented. In an

emergency, change management should allow repeated attempts to make a

successful change if the initial attempt fails. In an emergency restoring service

is the first priority.

Conclusion

The study project was fruitful in enhancing my understanding about the

various practices being followed towards change management. At the same time

I realized that change management is not just a guideline towards controlling

change, but a philosophy in itself.

Different organizations implementing change management and utilizing change

management software/ systems have a different view-point of how they define

change management. Based on the services being provided and their respective

domains of expertise, organizations focus on different aspects of change

requirement, planning and management.

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Appendix

GCARS screen-view with all the available Views and Options:

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GCARS window displaying companies with pending “Change Needing

Approval” clause:

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CGARS screen-view displaying “change requests” submitted by change

management staff of BHP Biliton:

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Change Request screen-view with details regarding requirement of change

and proposed plan of action:

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GCARS screen-view of all options which result in closing a change

proposal:

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REFERENCES

Books: Breakthrough IT Change Management

- Bennet P. Lientz and Kathryn P. Rea

Project Manager’s Spotlight on Change Management

- Claudia Baca

Effective Change Management: Ten Steps for Technical

Professions

- David L. Goetsch, James R. Richburg

Making Change Irresistible

- Ken Hultman

Web-sites: http://www.bmc.com/remedy

http://www.borland.com

http://www.csc.com

http://www.change-management-toolbook.com

http://www.change-management.com

http://en.wikipedia.org

https://portal.amer.csc.com/wps/myportal

Change Management System:

GCARS (Global Change Activity Request System)

http://gcars.csc.com

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