Re: Change Management in e-Business Initiatives
The client i'm working for at the moment is very big on change management. I'm not aware of what lifecycle they are following but I can take you through the sequence of processes they follow.
They have a change management system where cases are logged... Then, a person would raise a change request in the system if a change indeed is required to close the case. After raising the change request, an RFC (Request for change? i think) form is filled. The copy is sent to the process owners from the technical and business side for approvals. When the RFC form is approved, the approval evidence is attached to the RFC Form and the Form is attached to the Change request in the system with statuses set to pending approval. Ths is then picked up b the change manager for a CAB(Change Advisory Board) meeting held every Monday and Thursday. The case is dicussed and you are then given an official go ahead to start work on the change.
After the change is implemented, it has to be tested in the QA environment, getting user acceptance testing from the business... and evidence is attached to the RFC form and status of the Change request updated on the system.
Once it has been successfully tested and the evidence of testing is recorded and the statuses and RFC forms updated, this is again picked up by the change advisory board (CAB) meeting held on Thursday. It is discussed and you are given Authorization to move it into the Production environment/system. The changes have to be tested in Production now, and the statuses updated accordingly and the case is closed.
Phew! Took me ages to write that down,,, imagine how long and annoying it can be sometimes even for tiny little changes.
Dont know if that is of any help to you but thought I'd share the process followed by one of the biggest confectionary companies in the world atleast in their Asia Pacific wing anyway.