Change Enablement - Risk Survey Guide

  1. Was the change tested (Testing)? 
    • What was the thought process and what steps did you follow?   
    • Did you run into any issues?  
    • Were any defective detected and were they resolved before implementing the change? 
    • Were the results accepted and approved by the Business Owner / Customer? 
    • Did you document or attach your test plan?  
  2. How many business days between change submission and start date? (Lead Time): 
    • If the lead time was not met is the customer willing to accept a possible outage? 
    • Was the time selected by the customer? 
    • Is the change related to a health and safety service? 
    • Is the change related to an emergency / break fix? 
  3. How complex is the change? (Complexity): 
    • Have you verified if there would be a downstream or dependency impact of the change?  
    • Are you modifying multiple systems downstream or dependencies? 
  4. How many internal or external customers could be impacted by this change? (Impact): 
    • intended and unintended
    • approximate number of customers using the service, not the number of customers using the service at the time of the change implementation.
  5. How long would it take to backout the change? (Backout Ability): 
    • Is the backout plan automated? 
    • Is there is a point where you can’t backout? 
    • Ensure you are basing the change on the worst-case scenario. 
    • How will the change be reversed? 
    • How will the system(s) recover if the change fails? 
    • Are you reverting to prior snapshot, hardware, or different software version? 
    • Are the decision points well documented? 
    • Ensure the intended duration includes rollback and acceptable validation 
  6. If the change fails, can service be restored within the change window? (Recovery Window):
    • Ensure you are basing the change on the on worst possible scenario 
    • In the event of a break fix, please select “Within window or using automation” 
  7. How easily is the change result verified? (Verification):
    1. 1 person or automated is happening at any given time 
    2. Two or more people who have been identified prior to the implementation of the change. 
    3. More than a day should be used for changes that require the change to permeate in the environment 
  8. Will there be an outage to end users, regardless of how short? (End User Outage) 
    • Is the change order scheduled during the authorized Change release window found on page 13 within the Change Management Guide  
  9. Will this be implemented during a standard maintenance window? (Maintenance Window):
    • Work with your Change Release Owner (manager) to determine the department's approved maintenance window. 
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