Everything You Need to Know About Change Schedule - ISO 20000

In service management, any action that directly or indirectly alters services is called a change. Change schedule or management is an essential component of ITIL that implements changes in services and related service management operations. Through Change Schedule - ISO 20000, organisations can introduce changes to their IT infrastructure, reports, processes, applications, and other functions, such as supplier relationships.

What is a Change Schedule - ISO 20000?

A change schedule ensures that every application — not limited to hardware and software — that changes does not hinder customer activities. In the previous ITIL version, the change schedule was known as 'change management' and 'change control'. However, due to the rigidity of the terminology, change management changed to change schedule to accommodate and adapt to flexible situations. Change schedule allows organisations to identify, assess, and manage risks to generate a successful IT change and implement a proper change schedule.

Unlike organisational change enablement, which carries out a customer-focused change approach to improve and transform organisations' operations, change schedule emphasises and works on changing tools and services.

Types of Changes Under Change Schedule

The change schedule consists of three changes with different managing strategies: standard change, normal change, and emergency change.

Standard Change

A standard change is a simple change that does not require outside permission to function. It is a pre-confirmed and documented change that work involves low-risk management. Standard changes can be both a service desk request and an operational activity. They require thorough risk analysis at the time of their installation or modification to avoid any negative impacts.

Normal Change

Normal changes follow an organised process that consists of three steps: scheduling, observing, and executing. In a normal change, models are modified per the urgency and type of change factors. For instance, a low-risk change will involve the authorisation of a team leader, whereas a high-risk change would need a higher-up's approval, such as investors or directors. Involved parties must request a change manually or automatically to activate the normal change procedure.

Emergency Change

Emergency changes are applicable in environments involving urgent and critical situations, such as a security breach or data leak. Due to the urgency of the action, emergency changes do not follow a standard protocol. Instead, the concerned change authorities should authorise an assessment swiftly without pre-documentation to implement an emergency change. Unlike a normal change, higher-ups can sign their approval regardless of the team's size.

Change Schedule Process

A change schedule is a framework built on the standards provided by the ITIL to enhance and support an organisation's service management system (SMS). Service management support desks automate the change schedule process to oversee the entire change management process, from controlling and documenting to assessing and expediting. The change schedule process is a systematic procedure including:

● Creating and documenting change requests
● Assessing change requests
● Preparing a change strategy
● Testing the proposed and planned change strategy
● Designing a change proposal
● Incorporating the change
● Changing performance evaluation
● Finalising the change process

Why is a Change Schedule Important?

Change Schedule - ISO 20000 is a process that assists in spotting and reducing risks and vulnerabilities during IT changes. When ITIL proposes IT changes, the change schedule process tests and accelerates the changes, helping companies meet their business goals. A successful change schedule assures enterprises that their IT services are stable, well-maintained, and functional and can adapt to constant changes in the IT environment. With the help of a change schedule, companies achieve their business needs and manage change requests swiftly and efficiently, improving their risk management system and reducing negative effects on their business operations.

Key Objectives of Change Schedule - ISO 20000

The primary objective of the change schedule is to improve IT service management to implement standard, normal, and emergency changes and ensure IT services are not disturbed.

Portfolio Management

Even though the change schedule is a part of the service management system and is activated during the service transition step of the procedure, it still aims to work with the portfolio management process. Working with a portfolio management process allows organisations to make informed decisions regarding proposing and executing strategic changes.

Change Evaluation

Change schedule's objective includes correctly analysing the planned changes to identify and eliminate risks and increase advantages and profits.

Change Order

Change schedule assists in prioritising changes according to the available resources and business goals to handle emergency and critical modifications first.

Backup Plan

Although the change schedule executes changes after a thorough assessment, on the off chance the proposed change fails or negatively affects the IT services, the change schedule designs a backup change to restore the services to their initial and normal status.

Configuration Report

Change schedule ensures the configuration system of IT services runs smoothly and remains updated according to evolving IT requirements and developments.

Benefits of Change Schedule - ISO 20000

Organisations with change schedules receive multiple benefits that reduce their workload and make adapting to IT changes comfortable and convenient. Other change schedule benefits include:

Customer Satisfaction

Change schedule increases user satisfaction by enhancing the IT management system and eliminating changes before they affect customer behaviour or services. Unresolved changes impact customer happiness and the organisation's reliability.

Increased Online Security

Unauthorised or untested change strategies produce unsatisfactory and unsuccessful results, resulting in additional online security breaches. ISO 20000's change schedule reduces the chances of customers noticing unsuccessful changes and vulnerabilities in the security system.

Decrease in Unauthorised Strategies

Unauthorised changes occur when a company's IT department does not follow or correctly implement the changes. However, with a change schedule, organisations can keep track of the changes, document them, and test the proposed plan to ensure an unauthorised change does not run.

Keep Up With IT Changes

In today's world, the IT sector is constantly developing and evolving, making it hard to stay up-to-date with technological advancements. Enterprises must keep up with digital and IT changes to deliver the latest services and thrive in a competitive environment. Change schedule allows customers to monitor and access their IT requests and follow its resolution process.

Final Thoughts

Change Schedule - ISO 20000 is a vital component of the ITIL guidelines that enable enterprises to create, monitor, and implement changes to improve their IT management. A change schedule increases customer satisfaction, eliminates user challenges, enhances productivity, and prevents changes from negatively impacting IT services.