Change Manager Calendar

It's only taken me 2 years to realize that people lie on change requests. Ok. Maybe not outright lies, but certainly many communication on change requests are not happening. Like, "I will email all of the service owners prior to the implementation of this change." and then those communications get "forgotten".

If I was a full time Change Manager, I would consider dissecting every change request into actionable items and create a calendar of follow-up items and start holding the change initiators accountable for the actionable items in their change requests.

As a part-time Change Manager with other duties, I am luck if I have time to review closing statuses!

Not My Change Quip

It is funny how everybody wants you to "be tough" with change requests and question everything, so long as it's not their own change.

Frustrating when somebody throws you under the bus on one change and then turns around and gets angry when you question the very thing the wanted you to question in the previous change that was not their own. Did you follow that? I didn't!

Just because you think something is an emergency does not make it an emergency.

Change Managers Favorite Word - Really?

Really?

It's becoming clear that our virtual change management board with part-time members is not 100% effective. I suppose effectiveness should be quantified and measured with metrics, however, it's becoming clear that the change initiators are not doing what they claim in their change requests.

Thus the question of "Really?" Really did you communicate to your peers who are going to be affected by this change. Really did you test this change.

As I ponder ways to say, "Really?" in a professional manner, I can't help but think that in the end we will start asking for more actual backing documentation to ensure that things get done like they are written on the change requests.

Change Lesson

A recent Emergency Change got me laughing because the requester made a judgement decision that comes with probably being fairly young!

At various times of the year, the University has what we call "Tech Timeout" where we are extra cautions not to disrupt services that our students, faculty and staff rely on during critical times. Any changes that are allowed to these critical services need to be approved by a Director and as such, they are mostly going to be Emergency or very urgent changes.

As the Change Manager, I was pre-notified of one such change coming in the next few days, which I always appreciate! I did remind the Manager to please make sure to note in the CR that the exception to the Tech Timeout policy was granted and by whom.

A few days later the change comes into the system and as you guessed, there is no indication of a Director approval anywhere in the change. I did note that a Director was cc'd in the work flow of the change meaning he will see the chatter between the requester and the CAB. So I leave a comment, "Checking on Tech Timeout Exception." in the CR.

I then walk over to the Manager's area and as I am walking the actual requester shouts, "I thought he knew about the change?" To which I respond, to their surprise, I did and I also asked there to be a reference to the Director approval. The requester says, and here is the fun part, "I put his email address in the notification list, that's not enough?"

Well, no. Actually it's not enough.

It's sort of like if I were to send my wife an email at 5:00 pm "asking" her permission to stop out for a few drinks and then simply heading to the bar. This is a big difference from coordinating with my wife and getting an agreed consent to stop on this evening for a few drinks with co-workers.

So without any background information on the change, the Director was being "informed" and not necessarily giving his/her permission for the change to proceed.