Configuring change models

A change model is a record that is used to pre-define the contents of a specific type of Request for Change (RFC), including the information used to populate the RFC and tasks needed to complete the change. When you open a change request using a change model, all information is added automatically to the change without any action needed by the operator.

When creating a new change model, you can define the tasks to be completed and the dependencies between multiple tasks. When you create a new change, a list of change model templates appears. In the change model template, change models are grouped by category and subcategory. You can apply a change model to a change using the change model template.

Create a new change model

User Roles: Change Coordinator, Change Manager

To create a new change model, follow these steps:

1. Click Change Management > Configuration > Change Models in the System Navigator.
2. Click New.
3. Type the change model ID.
4. Type the change model name.
5. Type the change description.

6. Click the Fill Field Category icon in the Category text box to select a change category.

   Note After the change model is created, you cannot change the category specified in the change model. If you want to change the category, you can create a new change model.

7. Click the Fill Field Subcategory icon in the Subcategory text box to select a change subcategory.

8. Select a change template from the drop-down list.

   If needed, you can specify more than one template. When users open a new change from this model, Service Manager automatically applies all specified templates in the order listed by merging their field values. The following table lists two example templates and their merge result.

   Sequence of Template	Field	Value
   1	Description	Install Windows Vista on new employee’s laptop
   	Brief Description	Install Windows Vista
   	Assignment Group	(empty)
   2	Description	(empty)
   	Brief Description	Install Windows 7
   	Assignment Group	Hardware
   Merge Result	Description	Install Windows Vista on new employee’s laptop
   	Brief Description	Install Windows 7
   	Assignment Group	Hardware

9. Select a wizard from the drop-down list.

   Note The wizard helps you to accomplish certain tasks when it executes. When you open a change model from a change, the wizard associated with the change model executes. For example, you can run a wizard to prompt the user for a device type when adding a device record.

10. Complete the form with all of the required information.
11. Click Save.

Add a task to a change model

User Roles: Change Manager

Using Task Planner, you can add, edit, or delete tasks, which are part of change model record. In the graphical interface, you can specify tasks as dependent on other tasks by adding a connector between two tasks. Tasks that do not have dependencies may be open in parallel but are still governed by the Open In Phase and Close By Phase attributes, as well as the task conditions.

Change task attributes

When adding a task to a model, specify the following attributes:

• Title
• Task Category
• Task Template
• Open In Phase – Species the starting change phase in which the task will be activated for the change. If the task is dependent on another task, it will have a Planned status.
• Close By Phase – Specifies the ending change phase by which the task must be closed. If there are still open tasks for a phase, the change will not be allowed to go to the next phase. If left blank, the ending phase will match the starting phase.
• Mark as required/Set properties as read-only – Specifies whether or not this task can be re-planned or removed when you plan tasks using Task Planner from a change record.

• Task Condition – Defines the conditions for task creation.

  • The task condition is evaluated at each update of the change record when the change is in the Open In Phase defined for this task.
  • If you leave this field blank, the condition will evaluate to true.
  • When the condition evaluates to true after a change update, the task is created and linked with the change record.
  • Once a task has been created and linked with the change, the condition for this task will not be re-evaluated anymore.
  • When the condition is true in the first instance but false after the change is updated, the system does not automatically close the task and you need to close it manually.
  • The condition of a planned task is shown as read-only in Task Planner from the change record.
  • If a task is dependent on a conditional task that has not been created because its condition evaluates to false, this task will still be created (with a Ready status) when the change reaches the Open In Phase defined for this task.

As these tasks are created for a Change, task information is automatically applied to the new task record.

For task dependencies to function, each task status must follow a convention to use a numeric value for the task status value. The global list “Change Task Status” contains the status values listed in the following table.

Value List	Display List
0	Planned
1	Ready
2	Assigned
20	Completed
21	Completed with Problems
3	In Progress
30	Cancelled
31	Withdrawn
32	Failed
4	Blocked

Tasks that do not have any dependencies are automatically opened with the“1=Ready” status. Tasks that are dependent on other tasks are opened with the “0-Planned” status. Once all tasks that another task is dependent on have reached a status of 20 or greater, the dependent task will have its status changed to “1-Ready”.

 To see a working example, view the Generic Task workflow. It utilizes format “chm.task”, and the statuses above. The initial “Waiting” phase will transition to “Active” when the task status > 0 which means it is not planned.

Using the behavior of the tasks statuses set by Process Designer, you can create your own task flow or modify a copy of the Generic Task workflow.  If you are using task statuses that are not using the numeric values, task dependencies will not function.

You can move a task from one phase to another by setting appropriate conditions. The following condition is an example to move a task from the “Waiting” phase to “Active”.

(Status in CurrentRecord> 0 AND Variable $L.tableAccess.update = true)

You can set multiple dependencies for a task. If a task is set with dependencies, the task can start only after all the dependent tasks are completed. The following table outlines the various statuses of a child task which is “dependent” on the parent task when you open a change.

Parent Task	Child Task
Ready	Planned
Completed	Ready
Completed with Problems	Ready
Canceled	Ready
Withdrawn	Ready
Failed	Ready
Blocked	Ready

To add a task to a change model, follow these steps:

1. Click Change Management > Configuration > Change Models in the System Navigator.

2. Click Search to select a change model.

   Or

   Click New to create a new change model record.

   Note Select a category to display the task editor in the Task Information section.

3. In the Task Information section, click the Edit button, and then click Add Task. A new task is added in Task Planner.

4. Select the new task, click the Task-Properties tab, and perform these steps:

   1. Type a task description in the Title text box.
   2. Select a task category from the drop-down list.
   3. Optionally, select a task template from the drop-down list.
   4. Select a change phase to create the task from the Open In Phase list.

   5. Optionally, select a change phase to close the task from the Close By Phase list.

      Note The ending phase must be no earlier than the starting phase. If left blank, the ending phase will be same as the starting phase.

   6. Optionally, select the Mark as required/Set properties as read-only check box if you do not want this task to be modified or deleted when you plan tasks in Task Planner from a change record.

      Note After you select the check box, a red dot appears on the top left corner of the task.

   7. Optionally, add conditions to create the task.

      Note “CurrentRecord” in the condition editor refers to the Change record.

      Caution You cannot add a new task until you define mandatory details of the previous task in the Task Planner window.

5. Click Add Task to add another task.

   Or

   Hover the mouse on the new task added in the graphical interface until you see a hand symbol, and then drag the mouse pointer to add a new task.

6. If needed, click Delete in the toolbar to delete a task.
7. (Optional) After you finish adding tasks, click Auto Layout to allow task planner to automatically arrange the tasks and dependencies.
8. Click OK to save the change model tasks.

Map change model fields into change records

User Roles: System Administrator and Implementer

By configuring a predefined link file, you can customize the fields to be copied from a change model to a change record. You can modify a global link file used as the default for all change models, and you can further specify a link file for an individual change model. The link file for a specific change model takes precedence over the global link file.

To configure a default change model field mapping for all change models, follow these steps:

1. Click Change Management > Administration > Settings in the System Navigator.

   The Change Setting screen appears. The default link file for all the change models is specified in the Default Open/Apply Link text box.

2. Click the Find Related Information icon on the right of the Default Open/Apply Link text box to open the link file.
3. Click the line containing the mapping information in the table, and then click More > Select Line.

4. Modify the field mapping in the Source Field (Fill To/Post From) column and the Target Field (Fill From/Post To) column.

   Note Enter the field names of the changeModel table in the Source Field (Fill To/Post From) column, and enter the field names of the cm3r table in the Target Field (Fill From/Post To) column. The source and target fields in each mapping row should have the same data type.

5. Click Save.

To configure a field mapping for one specific change model:

1. Click Tailoring > Tailoring Tools > Links in the System Navigator.
2. In the Name field, type the name of the form or file. If desired, type a descriptive name or phase in the Description field.
3. Click New to create the new link record.
4. Click a line in the table, and then click More > Select Line.
5. Type descriptive relationship information in the appropriate text boxes.

6. Configure a mapping using the Source Field (Fill To/Post From) column and the Target Field (Fill From/Post To) column.

   Note Enter the field names of the changeModel table in the Source Field (Fill To/Post From) column, and enter the field names of the cm3r table in the Target Field (Fill From/Post To) column. The source and target fields in each mapping row should have the same data type.

7. Click Save to add the new link record.
8. Click Change Management > Configuration > Change Models in the System Navigator.

9. Click Search to select a change model.

   Or

   Click New to create a new change model record.

10. In the Open/Apply Link field, click the Fill icon to select the link file you created.
11. Click Save.

Use change models in the Service Catalog connector

User Roles: System Administrator

When adding a new Service Catalog item using the “Open a Change” connector, you can select a change model to open a change.

To use a change model when creating a service catalog item using the “Open a Change” connector:

1. Click Service Catalog > Administration > Manage Items in the System Navigator.

2. Click Add New Service Item.

   The New Service Item Wizard appears.

3. Enter the information as needed for the new Service Catalog item, and then click Next.
4. Select Open a Change as the connector type and specify the parent category that this new item belongs to.
5. Click Next.
6. Select change category, change subcategory, and change model, and then click Next.

7. Specify all the fields to define the initial state of the change request this item creates.

   Note All these fields are mandatory for creating the change requests. They must be specified either here or in the selected change model. If you leave any of these fields empty here, make sure this field has been defined in the selected change model. Otherwise, the change will not be created automatically after a request is approved.

   The values specified here take precedence over those defined in the selected change model (or in the change templates used by the change model).

8. Click Finish.

After completing these steps, a Service Catalog item is created with the “Open a Change” connector. When a user orders this Service Catalog item and the request gets approved by the approver, a change record using the selected change model will be created. When the change record has gone through the change workflow and is closed, the interaction record is automatically closed.

Enable or disable the Apply Change Model option for a change workflow phase

User Roles: System Administrator, Change Manager

In the out-of-box setting, the Apply Change Model option is available only for change records that use the Project Proposal, Emergency Change, Normal Change, or Standard Change workflow and are in a phase before Authorization.

You can enable or disable this option for a phase of a change workflow by configuring the Chm Apply Change Model action in the workflow phase.

To enable the “Apply Change Model” option for a change workflow phase, follow these steps:

1. Click Change Management > Configuration > Change Workflows from the System Navigator. All change workflows are displayed.
2. Open the change workflow that you want to configure.
3. Select a phase in the workflow, and then click the Actions tab.

4. Click Add to add an action with the following settings:

   • Id: type Apply Change Model
   • Action: select Chm Apply Change Model
   • Location: select More Options List
   • Action Condition: Select RAD Expression, and then enter $L.tableAccess.update=true
   • Requires lock: select the check box (true)
5. Click Save.
6. To disable this option for this phase, select the Apply Change Model action, and click Delete.

Clone a change model

User Roles: System Administrator, Change Manager

To clone a change model with task information, follow these steps:

1. Click Change Management > Configuration > Change Models from the System Navigator. All change models are displayed.
2. Click Search, and then select a change model.
3. Click Clone. The system opens the Clone Model page.
4. Specify a new unique ID and a name for the cloned change model record.

5. Select the Copy task information from another model check box, and then click the Fill icon to select another change model from which the task information will be copied.

   Note that if the change model you selected has a different task workflow than the current one, the copied task workflow may not work correctly if you use this cloned model.

6. Click OK.

 

Related topics

Change Management configuration