| 0 Non-existent | There is no defined change management
process and changes can be made with virtually no
control. There is no awareness that change can be
disruptive for both IT and business operations, and no
awareness of the benefits of good change management.
|
| 1 (Initial/Ad Hoc) | It is recognized that changes should be
managed and controlled, but there is no consistent
process to follow. Practices vary and it is likely that
unauthorized changes will take place. There is poor or
non-existent documentation of change and configuration
documentation is incomplete and unreliable. Errors are
likely to occur together with interruptions to the
production environment caused by poor change
management.
|
| 2 (Repeatable but Intuitive) | There is an informal change
management process in place and most changes follow
this approach; however, it is unstructured, rudimentary
and prone to error. Configuration documentation
accuracy is inconsistent and only limited planning and
impact assessment takes place prior to a change. There
is considerable inefficiency and rework.
|
| 3 (Defined Process) | There is a defined formal change
management process in place, including categorisation,
prioritisation, emergency procedures, change
authorisation and release management, but compliance is
not enforced. The defined process is not always seen as
suitable or practical and, as a result, workarounds take
place and processes are bypassed. Errors are likely to
occur and unauthorised changes will occasionally occur.
The analysis of the impact of IT changes on business
operations is becoming formalised, to support planned
rollouts of new applications and technologies.
|
| 4 (Managed and Measurable) | The change management
process is well developed and consistently followed for
all changes and management is confident that there are
no exceptions. The process is efficient and effective, but
relies on considerable manual procedures and controls to
ensure that quality is achieved. All changes are subject
to thorough planning and impact assessment to minimise
the likelihood of post-production problems. An approval
process for changes is in place. Change management
documentation is current and correct, with changes
formally tracked. Configuration documentation is
generally accurate. IT change management planning and
implementation is becoming more integrated with
changes in the business processes, to ensure that training,
organisational changes and business continuity issues are
addressed. There is increased co-ordination between IT
change management and business process re-design.
|
| 5 Optimized | The change management process is regularly
reviewed and updated to keep in line with best practices.
Configuration information is computer based and
provides version control. Software distribution is
automated and remote monitoring capabilities are
available. Configuration and release management and
tracking of changes is sophisticated and includes tools to
detect unauthorised and unlicensed software. IT change
management is integrated with business change
management to ensure that IT is an enabler in increasing
productivity and creating new business opportunities for
the organisation.
|
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