Change management is one of the most persistent challenges for ITSM teams – and it is getting harder to navigate.
While nearly all ITSM teams have a change process in place, 64% feel it needs to be improved. This may be the result of outdated processes or simply the difficulty of adapting to new technologies like AI.
This article explores how change management should be handled and offers a few proven best practices to improve your processes.
Expect to learn:
- The five key “phases” of ITSM change management
- The four best practices every change manager should follow
- The best way to improve your IT ticketing system
What is ITSM Change Management?
Whether you’re introducing new services or adjusting established processes, alterations to your IT service management (ITSM) offering can cause operational disruptions. This could range from full-system downtime while hardware is replaced to end-users struggling to use multifactor authentication (MFA). In fact, previous reports suggest up to 10% of all ITSM changes fail due to process complications.
ITSM change management is a discipline designed to minimize these disruptions and accelerate change within ITSM. It seeks to create a cohesive process where changes can be requested, evaluated, implemented, and monitored easily–leading to five distinct “phases” of change management.
What Are the Five Phases of ITSM Change Management?
The standard ITSM change management process can be broken down into five distinct phases:
1. Request for Change (RFC)
A change is formally requested via an RFC form which includes a range of information, such as:
- The reason: Why is the change needed and what will it achieve?
- The requirements: What resources and how much time will be needed to complete the transition?
This provides clear context for the individuals responsible for planning and implementing the change.
2. Change Assessment and Planning
The next step is to assess the request across multiple areas, including:
- Risk: What might go wrong and which processes could the change disrupt?
- Back-up plans: How will delays be dealt with and risks mitigated?
- Priority: Does this change warrant immediate action?
- Timeline: How long will the process take and what is a reasonable deadline for completion?
This should produce a clear, comprehensive change plan that outlines exactly when and how the transition process will be undertaken. The plan should:
- Assign roles and responsibilities for each task at every stage of change
- Set clear, achievable milestones to track the project’s progress
- Outline goals, expectations and benchmarks against which the project can be assessed
3. Change Approvals
Most changes will require buy-in and sign-off from a range of personnel. As a result, most organizations will, at this point form a Change Advisory Board to communicate with key stakeholders, gain approvals where necessary, and identify any extra information not captured during the initial assessment phase.
4. Change Implementation
Once approval has been attained, the change process can begin. This will vary greatly depending on the specific change but will typically involve:
- Technical changes: The introduction, removal or update of a piece of hardware or software
- Organizational changes: The updating of existing policies and procedures to reflect the technical change
- Training: Various communications and educational resources to ensure end-users understand and adapt to the change
5. Post-Implementation Review
The change process should always conclude with a review to assess:- How efficiently the change was implemented
- How the process could be improved in the future
- Which areas should be monitored to ensure a smooth transition
For example, your IT team might proactively monitor usage of a new piece of software to assess whether staff need further training to ensure they make full use of it.
ITSM Change Management: 4 Proven Best Practices
To effectively manage changes within your ITSM framework, it's crucial to implement strategies that minimize disruptions and enhance overall efficiency. Here are four best practices to guide your change management efforts:
1. Streamline Communication
Many of the most common problems with change management come down to miscommunication - from a lack of employee education to poor coordination between techs. These communication issues can often be resolved simply by streamlining your communication platforms to avoid fragmentation or confusion.
2. Solicit Feedback
End-user experience is a growing priority for ITSM leaders. But many change management processes never explicitly ask end-users for feedback about their experience – which makes it difficult to assess the success of a change across this vital dimension.
Change management leaders should proactively seek feedback to understand how their efforts impact end-users. The most effective way of doing this is as follows:
- Establish a baseline of end-user satisfaction in your ITSM services
- Solicit feedback from end-users during the post-implementation review phase
- Compare this feedback to the baseline to determine how your change has impacted overall perceptions of ITSM
3. Centralize Documentation
Most ITSM changes involve a lot of paperwork, from compliance checks to purchase receipts. The problem is these documents will often be produced by different individuals within the change team. As a result, many organizations end up with a documentation mess that can cause various problems, including:- Regulatory reporting: You may require a piece of documentation to prove compliance, but struggle to locate it.
- Communication fragmentation: Without easy access to reference documents, your IT team may lose track of which tasks have been completed.
- Wasted time: Fielding documentation from multiple sources can take a lot of time and effort.
The takeaway is clear: A centralized documentation hub and clear processes to ensure all documents are stored there will save you time, effort and potentially even money.
4. Automate Processes
Recent surveys find that 26% of ITSM teams use automation to serve multiple departments, with 22% more planning do the same in the future. Change processes are often a great opportunity to introduce such solutions, enabling you to embed automation within the new system or processes.
A perfect example is ticketing: When changing your ticketing software, you can opt for a solution that features more sophisticated automation. This will help save tech time and improve your service with automated workflows and ticket routing.
Introduce Ticketing Automation with DeskDirector
DeskDirector’s software leverages intelligent automation to help IT leaders transform their ticketing workflows. With exclusive Microsoft integrations, custom configuration and a centralized hub for documentation and communication, DeskDirector users resolve tickets 4x faster than other organizations.
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