Changes

This page contains information to assist our customers with utilizing the Change Management module in RegScale. It describes what it is, why you would use it, the benefits, and provides instructions on getting started.

What is it?

ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library) Change Management is a process framework for managing changes to IT systems and services in a controlled and structured way. The ITIL framework is widely adopted by organizations around the world to manage IT service delivery and is a set of best practices for IT service management.

Change management is a key process within ITIL, which aims to minimize the risk of disruptions to IT services caused by changes to IT systems and infrastructure. The goal of change management is to ensure that changes are made in a controlled and systematic way that minimizes disruption to IT services while maximizing the benefits of the changes.

The ITIL change management process typically involves the following steps:

• Request for Change (RFC): A request for change is submitted to the change management team to request a change to a system or service. The RFC includes details of the proposed change, the reason for the change, and the expected benefits.
• Change Assessment: The change management team assesses the RFC to determine the potential impact of the change on IT services, including the risks, costs, and benefits.
• Change Approval: The change management team evaluates the change assessment and decides whether to approve or reject the change request. If the change is approved, the change management team will develop a change plan.
• Change Implementation: The change management team implements the change according to the change plan, which includes testing, training, and communication with stakeholders.
• Change Review: After the change has been implemented, the change management team reviews the change to ensure that it has been successful and meets the expected outcomes.
• Change Closure: Once the change has been reviewed and approved, the change management team closes the change request.

Overall, ITIL change management is an important process for organizations to ensure that changes to IT systems and infrastructure are made in a controlled and systematic way, reducing the risk of disruption to IT services while maximizing the benefits of the changes.

Why would you use it?

Change management is an essential process for any organization that relies on IT systems and services. Here are some of the key reasons why an organization might use change management:

• Minimize disruptions to IT services: Change management helps to minimize the risk of disruptions to IT services caused by changes to IT systems and infrastructure. By following a structured and controlled process for making changes, organizations can reduce the likelihood of unintended consequences or unforeseen issues that could disrupt IT services.
• Ensure compliance: Change management helps organizations to ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations, such as ITIL, PCI-DSS, and HIPAA. By following a structured process for making changes, organizations can ensure that they are meeting the necessary compliance requirements.
• Improve efficiency: Change management can help organizations to improve the efficiency of their IT operations by reducing the time and effort required to manage changes. By having a centralized process for managing changes, organizations can streamline the change management process and reduce the administrative burden on IT teams.
• Enhance communication and collaboration: Change management encourages communication and collaboration between IT teams and other stakeholders, such as business units and customers. By involving stakeholders in the change management process, organizations can ensure that changes are aligned with business goals and priorities, and that any potential issues are identified and addressed early on.
• Maximize benefits: Change management helps organizations to maximize the benefits of changes to IT systems and infrastructure by ensuring that changes are made in a controlled and systematic way. By carefully planning and executing changes, organizations can minimize the risk of disruption to IT services and ensure that changes are delivering the expected benefits.

Overall, change management is essential for organizations that rely on IT systems and services to operate. By following a structured and controlled process for making changes, organizations can reduce the risk of disruptions to IT services, ensure compliance with industry standards and regulations, improve efficiency, enhance communication and collaboration, and maximize the benefits of changes.

What are the benefits?

There are several direct benefits of change management that organizations can realize:

• Reduced risk of service disruptions: By following a structured change management process, organizations can minimize the risk of service disruptions caused by changes to IT systems and infrastructure. The change management process helps to identify potential risks and issues before changes are made, and ensures that changes are tested and implemented in a controlled and systematic way.
• Faster resolution of incidents: When incidents do occur, change management can help organizations to respond more quickly and effectively. By having a clear understanding of the IT environment and the changes that have been made, IT teams can more quickly diagnose and resolve incidents, minimizing the impact on business operations.
• Improved compliance: Change management is often required to comply with industry standards and regulations such as ITIL, HIPAA, and PCI-DSS. By following a structured and auditable process for making changes, organizations can demonstrate compliance with these standards and avoid costly penalties for non-compliance.
• Increased efficiency: Change management can help organizations to increase efficiency by streamlining the change process and reducing the administrative burden on IT teams. By automating some aspects of the change management process, such as change approvals and notifications, organizations can reduce the time and effort required to manage changes.
• Better alignment with business goals: By involving stakeholders in the change management process, organizations can ensure that changes are aligned with business goals and priorities. By carefully planning and executing changes, organizations can ensure that changes are delivering the expected benefits and are not causing unintended consequences.

Overall, the direct benefits of change management include reduced risk of service disruptions, faster incident resolution, improved compliance, increased efficiency, and better alignment with business goals. By implementing a structured change management process, organizations can realize these benefits and ensure that changes are made in a controlled and systematic way.

How do I use it?
The case module in RegScale Community Edition (CE) provides a number of key features that are useful in managing a robust program, to include:

Tracking and reporting the status of changes

• Conducting risk assessments related to changes
• Tracking change management tasks and collecting evidence
• Assigning ownership of change management and response actions for accountability
• Real-time tracking and dashboards for visualizing progress in resolving changes
• Automation of evidence collection and forensic data via our Application Programming Interfaces (APIs)
• Single pane of glass assignment tracking via our work bench
• Automated workflows for review and approval
• Interactive timeline builder for forensic analysis
• Social collaboration via our News Feed (LinkedIn for Compliance) and real-time commenting system
• Secure evidence management with our file upload and encryption system
• Audit history including every view, update, print, email, etc.

For our Enterprise Edition (EE) customers, you get all the great features above, plus we add:

• Ability to create custom fields to extend the schema and build out customer specific data entry forms
• Integration with Microsoft Teams and Slack for real-time collaboration
• Ability to host a multi-tenant version to segregate data by site, customer, organization, etc. to run many different - - incident response programs with complete data isolation from a single installation (i.e. separate tenants for cyber security, physical security, and safety)
• Real-time interactive dashboard with Microsoft PowerBI AddOn

How can I customize this?

Using Setup -> Metadata, you can add additional options to the Change Type Drop Down and Priority options in the Change Module. Please visit our page on Metadata for more information.