Change Management Policy
Policy Owner
Policy Approver(s)
Storage Location
Effective Date
Next Review Date
W. Jason Strutz (Manager, IT Infrastructure Management and Support)
Jim Dohle (Director, IT Production Services)
Editable: intranet.uillinois.edu/departments/library/IT/Policies/
Published: http://www.library.illinois.edu/administration/it/policies/
TBD
TBD
Purpose
The University of Illinois Library is committed to ensuring reliable information technology services.
In order to meet this objective, proposed changes to running production services must be
carefully examined to determine the risks and benefits of making those changes versus keeping
the service operating as-is.
The goal of this policy is to define what services are subject to change management, the
procedure for requesting changes, and guidelines for approving, denying, and scheduling change
events.
Services Governed by Change Management
All changes that may affect production services should be formalized through the change
management procedure. Examples include, but are not limited to:
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Firmware updates to production hardware
Software updates to infrastructure components
Software upgrades for production services, including commercial off the shelf software
(COTS), Library-hosted 3rd party applications, and deployment of code changes to inhouse developed software
Updates to IT-internal hardware, software, or services used to monitor and troubleshoot
production services
Services Excluded from Change Management
Some changes need to be made quickly, or can be approved as a matter of course. Such
changes are still subject to the System Maintenance policy. Examples include, but are not limited
to:
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Replacement and repair of failed hardware that is covered by manufacturer warranty or
contracted support
Routine operating system patching
Changes mandated from the CITES Security
Services that are run in a non-production environment, such as development, test, or
sandbox servers
Changes initiated, approved, implemented, and controlled by external vendors
Procedure
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Determine impact and probability of identified risks
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University of Illinois Library
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Determine stakeholders affected
Fill out the form:
https://intranet.uillinois.edu/departments/library/Change%20Requests/Forms/AllItems.asp
x – it will be submitted to the IT managers mailing list
IT manager (or designated appointee) will review and initiate follow up on change
requests within 2 business days
IT manager (or designated appointee) makes go / no go decision in consultation with
affected service owners, and coordinates scheduling the change
Approval and Scheduling Guidelines
All changes incur some amount of risk, however unlikely. Change requests that do not
acknowledge this fact have not been adequately thought through, and should not be approved or
scheduled without further consideration.
Consideration should be given to services and patrons that may be indirectly affected by the
requested change.
This procedure is not intended to make hard and fast decisions about changes. It is a
communication tool to assist in approving and scheduling changes, given the tradeoffs between
making or not making the change. The approval and scheduling decisions should be made
by the owner(s) of the service(s); IT is responsible for stakeholder identification and
communicating potential risks and benefits.
All scheduling is subject to notification and other considerations outlined in the System
Maintenance Policy.
Revision History
Version
Change
Author
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University of Illinois Library
Date of Change