After a valid Justification of the change has been provided, the Impact of the change can be ascertained, and recorded, with a separate drop down menu to choose from, which can be customised, and reported upon. The important risks associated with the changes can be recorded in a similar fashion. Again, with its own customisable drop down menu to be reported on.

Plans can then be made for the change, and recorded, all in the same place for overview and transparency. The backout plan should the change cause business-impacting issues, the communication plan of how the project will be communicated to those involved, and/or impacted, and the full test plan of steps to ensure all is ok, once in place.

For change requests, the status is normally set to ‘Needs Approval’. When a “Change Manager” authorises this request, the status will change to ‘Approved’. After clearance of the change request, a “Change Log” entry is required to be made. 

At any point, a formal change log entry can be made. This records details of the change, and separates out the unimportant aspects of a request, from the Infrastructure affecting elements. This is especially important if affecting a specific asset. Support staff can view the changes made at a site, or by date in order to track down any likely causes of future problems. A list of recent changes can be quickly referred to when a problem arises.