Change Management within the ITIL framework

Change Management is addressed in ITIL’s Service Transition publication. The document describes Change Management as the process responsible for ensuring that changes are recorded, evaluated, planned, tested, implemented, and reviewed in a controlled manner.

Change Management enables you to meet the following business objectives:

• Use standardized methods and procedures to ensure efficient and prompt handling of all changes.
• Record all changes to service assets and configuration items (CIs) in the Configuration Management System (CMS).
• Minimize overall business risk.
• Respond to customers’ changing business requirements, maximize value and reduce the number of incidents, disruptions, and rework.
• Respond to business and IT requests for changes, aligns services with business needs.

The ITIL Change Management process model includes

• The steps to follow to handle a change
• The order in which the steps are to be followed
• Roles and responsibility of the stakeholders
• Scheduling and planning
• When and how to escalate a change