Request and follow a change

The Changes module of Portail ZAPP governs every modification to the information system: an update, a hardware replacement, a configuration change. Each change is described, assessed, approved, scheduled, implemented and then reviewed. The screens are reserved for Service Desk agents, CAB and ECAB members, major incident and release managers, and administrators.

The three change categories

Each change has a type, and each type belongs to a category:

Standard: a pre-approved, low-risk, repeatable model. Submitting a standard change approves it immediately: it goes through neither assessment nor the CAB;
Normal: assessed case by case, then approved by the CAB;
Emergency: fast-track approval by the ECAB, possibly after the fact if no member can be reached.

Administrators create other types; a type can pre-fill the description and rollback plan of the form.

Create a change

Open Changes → Change list, then click New change. The form has three parts:

Definition: Type, Title, Description, Justification (expected benefit, incident to fix…) and Rollback plan (the steps to return to the previous state if the change fails). The rollback plan is required before a normal or emergency change can be approved;
Risk: Risk level (Low, Medium, High, Critical) and Impact (1–5) and Probability (1–5) scores. As soon as both scores are filled in, the record shows the risk matrix;
Scheduling: Planned start, Planned end and Implementer.

The change is saved in the Draft state and receives a number.

From an incident

On the record of an open Service Desk incident, the Quick actions card offers Create an emergency change to users allowed to create a change. The form opens in the Emergency category, pre-filled with the ticket's title and description. On save, the ticket is linked to the change and its CIs are added to the impacted CIs. If no emergency type is active, the form says so instead of picking another type.

AI assistance

When the AI assistant is configured, the form offers two aids:

Assisted writing, under the description and under the rollback plan, proposes a text based on what has already been entered;
Suggest the risk proposes a risk level and both scores, with a justification. The assistant relies on your input and, for a change that has already been saved, on its impacted CIs and on the reviews of past changes that touched those CIs.

Each proposal appears in a box, Assistant proposal — review before applying, with Apply and Dismiss: nothing is changed without you.

When AI is disabled, these buttons do not appear; the form remains fully usable.

The lifecycle

A change goes through the following states:

Draft → Submitted → In assessment (optional) → Pending approval → Approved → Scheduled → In progress → Succeeded or Failed (then Rolled back) → Closed.

A change can also be Rejected (Back to draft then lets you correct it and submit it again) or Canceled as long as its implementation has not started.

The record only shows the actions allowed for this change and for you: Submit, Start assessment, Send for approval, Schedule, Start implementation, Mark as succeeded, Mark as failed, Rollback done, Close, Cancel the change. An optional comment comes with each action. Those who can move a change forward are its requester, its implementer, CAB and ECAB members, and administrators.

A few rules always apply:

Schedule requires a valid window (end after start). Moving the window of a scheduled change brings it back to Approved;
from approval onwards, the title, description, rollback plan and risk are locked: only scheduling can still be changed. The type can no longer change after submission;
Close requires the post-implementation review.

Emergency implemented before approval

If no ECAB member can be reached, an emergency change can be started with Implement without waiting for the ECAB, provided you give a Reason and have a rollback plan. The record then states that the change was implemented before ECAB approval. An ECAB member then regularises it with Record ECAB approval; the change cannot be closed before that.

The change record

Besides its definition, its risk and its People, the record brings together:

Approval: the pending step and the decisions already taken (see the page "Approve and schedule changes");
Planning: conflicts and freezes: the other changes whose window overlaps this one on the same CI, and the freeze windows that apply;
Impacted CIs: you add the target CIs (a CI type, then a search for a CI), and the dependent CIs are calculated from the CMDB relations, with the path from the target CI. A dependent CI can be excluded (it stays displayed, struck through) and brought back with Restore; Recalculate dependencies takes a CMDB change into account. The impact can be edited until implementation, then it is locked. Without the CMDB, the section states that impact assessment is disabled, without blocking the change;
Linked incidents: link a Service Desk ticket (by number or title) with Link, or remove it with Remove the link. The link also appears on the ticket. This section only exists when the Service Desk is installed;
Problems fixed by this change, when the Problems module is installed: when a successful change is closed, the owners of those problems are invited to set them to "Resolved";
the Release that groups this change, if any, and the major incident it originates from;
the History of every transition.

Post-implementation review

Once the change has Succeeded, Failed or been Rolled back, fill in the Post-implementation review: Result (Success, Partial success, Failure), Deviations and Lessons learned, then Save review. The review is required before closing; its lessons help the AI assistant assess future changes on the same CIs.

Reminders

The requester and the implementer of an approved or scheduled change receive a reminder, by email and in the application, before the window starts (24 hours before by default; the administrator sets this delay). If the window is moved, the reminder is sent again.

Find a change

The Change list can be filtered by status and type, and offers a search by number or title. The global search in the header also finds changes by number or title, for users who have access to the list.