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Optimize IT Change Management

Right-size IT change management to protect the live environment.

  • Infrastructure managers and change managers need to re-evaluate their change management processes due to slow change turnaround time, too many unauthorized changes, too many incidents and outages because of poorly managed changes, or difficulty evaluating and prioritizing changes.
  • IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.
  • Infrastructure changes are often seen as different from application changes, and two (or more) processes may exist.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

  • ITIL provides a usable framework for change management, but full process rigor is not appropriate for every change request.
  • You need to design a process that is flexible enough to meet the demand for change, and strict enough to protect the live environment from change-related incidents.
  • A mature change management process will minimize review and approval activity. Counterintuitively, with experience in implementing changes, risk levels decline to a point where most changes are “pre-approved.”

Impact and Result

  • Create a unified change management process that reduces risk. The process should be balanced in its approach toward deploying changes while also maintaining throughput of innovation and enhancements.
  • Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
  • Establish and empower a change manager and change advisory board with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.
  • Integrate a configuration management database with the change management process to identify dependencies.

Optimize IT Change Management Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should optimize change management, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

1. Define change management

Assess the maturity of your existing change management practice and define the scope of change management for your organization.

2. Establish roles and workflows

Build your change management team and standardized process workflows for each change type.

3. Define the RFC and post-implementation activities

Bookend your change management practice by standardizing change intake, implementation, and post-implementation activities.

4. Measure, manage, and maintain

Form an implementation plan for the project, including a metrics evaluation, change calendar inputs, communications plan, and roadmap.


Member Testimonials

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this blueprint and what our clients have to say.

9.6/10


Overall Impact

$51,137


Average $ Saved

33


Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Michigan State Court Administrative Office (SCAO)

Workshop

10/10

$64,999

26

The entire experience was wonderful. The overall value was higher because the workshop was intended to help us improve our recently established (~4... Read More

Sterilite Corporation

Workshop

10/10

$64,999

50

Hernando County Clerk of Circuit Court and Comptroller

Workshop

9/10

$24,699

23

Benedict was a great facilitator, very knowledgable, and kept my team engaged, which is no easy task!

Joseph Ribkoff Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$50,000

50

Gillette Children's Specialty Healthcare

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

60

This was a great consultation and we have started the implementation.

AgCountry Farm Credit Services

Workshop

10/10

$32,499

100

California Department of Real Estate

Guided Implementation

10/10

$259K

105

The best parts of my experience are the valuable advice, and thoughtful guidance form Frank that provided real world experiences that made our appr... Read More

Platinum Equity Advisors LLC

Workshop

8/10

$64,999

20

A great workshop in its design. Where the sessions fall short is in application. This is of no fault of ITRG, but rather to our lack of maturity to... Read More

Georgia Municipal Association

Workshop

10/10

N/A

5

I really enjoyed the workshop and the dialog it prompted from my team. I wish that it could have been facilitated in person, as the dynamics were a... Read More

Arkansas Department of Transportation

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,599

20

Flexibility and knowledge.

Alliance Resource Partners

Workshop

10/10

N/A

5

Utah Valley University

Guided Implementation

9/10

$32,499

2

John's audio seemed to go in and out and become garbled at times. We were always able to follow his train of discussion, but it was difficult at ti... Read More

Mainstream Renewable Power Ltd

Guided Implementation

10/10

$11,360

10

The best was Mahmoud dedication to this and the fact that he is realistic in his assessments. Also, he is very friendly and professional at the sa... Read More

Space Telescope Science Institute

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

5

Good engagement, knowledgeable consultant - receptive to my views - on this basis, I will do more....

Kentucky Fried Chicken UK

Guided Implementation

10/10

$82,000

50

We are still talking to Ben on our journey to introduce change control but we are learning. His knowledge is exfellent & I truely believe once we ... Read More

4Wall Entertainment

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,999

20

New-Indy Containerboard, LLC

Guided Implementation

9/10

$12,599

10

Synergi Partners

Guided Implementation

10/10

$77,999

47

Saskatchewan Blue Cross

Workshop

9/10

$30,000

10

Best: we came out with a very practical framework for change management that was right-sized for our organization Worst: On our end from time to... Read More

4Wall Entertainment

Workshop

10/10

$31,499

10

Overall experience was great, a huge benefit to the entire IT team. Benedict Chang's mastery of the material and process was evident as we compress... Read More

Government of Saskatchewan-Ministry of SaskBuilds and Procurement- Information Technology Division

Guided Implementation

9/10

$16,000

20

Heniff Transportation Systems

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,399

10

Best was affirmation of what process I have been using aligns with best practice, nothing negative at this time.

Department of Justice Canada

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

N/A

Ben was extremely knowledgeable, articulate, and succinct, able to move through much useful information very quickly without appearing rushed. I lo... Read More

Insmed Incorporated

Workshop

9/10

$107K

23

Sumit’s broad knowledge on the subject and sound advice to most senior people in the team.

Gainesville Regional Utilities

Workshop

10/10

$31,499

115

Great facilitation and a huge help with navigating us through some challenging conversations.

Oregon Youth Authority

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,399

10

Ben was thorough in reviewing our current state based on our previous workshop. He was able to identify a few key areas we could adjust to being m... Read More

Municipality of Chatham-Kent

Workshop

9/10

N/A

20

The ability to customize the tools and processes to work for our organization. Ben was very knowledgeable and a good moderator of the discussion.

Derivco

Guided Implementation

9/10

$12,399

5

Best, great insights in a number of domains around Change Management, made us consider items we had not directly thought about. It was all posit... Read More

SF Fire Credit Union

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,231

10

The MathWorks, Inc.

Workshop

8/10

N/A

10

Here is the participants feedback - Having the structured workshop with exercise's to complete was very helpful. Although the the exercise's cou... Read More


Change Management

Let your battle with change-related incidents begin!
This course makes up part of the Infrastructure & Operations Certificate.

Now Playing:
Academy: Change Management | Executive Brief

An active membership is required to access Info-Tech Academy
  • Course Modules: 5
  • Estimated Completion Time: 2-2.5 hours
  • Featured Analysts:
  • Benedict Chang, Research Specialist, Infrastructure
  • Allison Kinnaird, Research Director, Infrastructure

Workshop: Optimize IT Change Management

Workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Define Change Management

The Purpose

  • Discuss the existing challenges and maturity of your change management practice.
  • Build definitions of change categories and the scope of change management.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Understand the starting point and scope of change management.
  • Understand the context of change request versus other requests such as service requests, projects, and operational tasks.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Outline strengths and challenges

1.2

Conduct a maturity assessment

  • Change Management Maturity Assessment Tool
1.3

Build a categorization scheme

1.4

Build a risk assessment matrix

  • Change Management Risk Assessment Tool

Module 2: Establish Roles and Workflows

The Purpose

  • Define roles and responsibilities for the change management team.
  • Develop a standardized change management practice for approved changes, including process workflows.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Built the team to support your new change management practice.
  • Develop a formalized and right-sized change management practice for each change category. This will ensure all changes follow the correct process and core activities to confirm changes are completed successfully.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Define the change manager role

  • Change Manager Job Description
2.2

Outline the membership and protocol for the Change Advisory Board (CAB)

  • Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)
2.3

Build workflows for normal, emergency, and pre-approved changes

  • Change Management Process Library

Module 3: Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

The Purpose

  • Create a new change intake process, including a new request for change (RFC) form.
  • Develop post-implementation review activities to be completed for every IT change.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • Bookend your change management practice by standardizing change intake, implementation, and post-implementation activities.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Define the RFC template

  • Request for Change Form Template
3.2

Determine post-implementation activities

  • Change Management Post-Implementation Checklist
3.3

Build your change calendar protocol

  • Project Summary Template

Module 4: Measure, Manage, and Maintain

The Purpose

  • Develop a plan and project roadmap for reaching your target for your change management program maturity.
  • Develop a communications plan to ensure the successful adoption of the new program.

Key Benefits Achieved

  • A plan and project roadmap for reaching target change management program maturity.
  • A communications plan ready for implementation.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Identify metrics and reports

  • Change Management Metrics Tool
4.2

Build a communications plan

  • Change Management Communications Plan
4.3

Build your implementation roadmap

  • Change Management Roadmap Tool

Optimize IT Change Management

Right-size IT change management practice to protect the live environment.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

Analyst Perspective

Balance risk and efficiency to optimize IT change management.

Change management (change enablement, change control) is a balance of efficiency and risk. That is, pushing changes out in a timely manner while minimizing the risk of deployment. On the one hand, organizations can attempt to avoid all risk and drown the process in rubber stamps, red tape, and bureaucracy. On the other hand, organizations can ignore process and push out changes as quickly as possible, which will likely lead to change related incidents and debilitating outages.

Right-sizing the process does not mean adopting every recommendation from best-practice frameworks. It means balancing the efficiency of change request fulfillment with minimizing risk to your organization. Furthermore, creating a process that encourages adherence is key to avoid change implementers from skirting your process altogether.

Benedict Chang, Research Analyst, Infrastructure and Operations, Info-Tech Research Group

Executive Summary

Your Challenge

Infrastructure and application change occurs constantly and is driven by changing business needs, requests for new functionality, operational releases and patches, and resolution of incidents or problems detected by the service desk.

IT managers need to follow a standard change management process to ensure that rogue changes are never deployed while the organization remains responsive to demand.

Common Obstacles

IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.

At the same time, an increasingly interlinked technical environment may cause issues to appear in unexpected places. Configuration management systems are often not kept up-to-date and do not catch the potential linkages.

Infrastructure changes are often seen as “different” from application changes and two (or more) processes may exist.

Info-Tech’s Approach

Info-Tech’s approach will help you:

  • Create a unified change management practice that balances risk and throughput of innovation.
  • Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
  • Establish and empower a Change Manager and Change Advisory Board (CAB) with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.

Balance Risk and Efficiency to Optimize IT Change Management

Two goals of change management are to protect the live environment and deploying changes in a timely manner. These two may seem to sometimes be at odds against each other, but assessing risk at multiple points of a change’s lifecycle can help you achieve both.

Your challenge

This research is designed to help organizations who need to:

  • Build a right-sized change management practice that encourages adherence and balances efficiency and risk.
  • Integrate the change management practice with project management, service desk processes, configuration management, and other areas of IT and the business.
  • Communicate the benefits and impact of change management to all the stakeholders affected by the process.

Change management is heavily reliant on organizational culture

Having a right-sized process is not enough. You need to build and communicate the process to gather adherence. The process is useless if stakeholders are not aware of it or do not follow it.

Increase the Effectiveness of Change Management in Your Organization

The image is a bar graph, with the segments labelled 1 and 2. The y-axis lists numbers 1-10. Segment 1 is at 6.2, and segment 2 is at 8.6.

Of the eight infrastructure & operations processes measured in Info-Tech’s IT Management and Governance Diagnostic (MGD) program, change management has the second largest gap between importance and effectiveness of these processes.

Source: Info-Tech 2020; n=5,108 IT professionals from 620 organizations

Common obstacles

These barriers make this challenge difficult to address for many organizations:

  • Gaining buy-in can be a challenge no matter how well the process is built.
  • The complexity of the IT environment and culture of tacit knowledge for configuration makes it difficult to assess cross-dependencies of changes.
  • Each silo or department may have their own change management workflows that they follow internally. This can make it difficult to create a unified process that works well for everyone.

“Why should I fill out an RFC when it only takes five minutes to push through my change?”

“We’ve been doing this for years. Why do we need more bureaucracy?”

“We don’t need change management if we’re Agile.”

“We don’t have the right tools to even start change management.”

“Why do I have to attend a CAB meeting when I don’t care what other departments are doing?”

Info-Tech’s approach

Build change management by implementing assessments and stage gates around appropriate levels of the change lifecycle.

The image is a circle, comprised of arrows, with each arrow pointing to the next, forming a cycle. Each arrow is labelled, as follows: Improve; Request; Assess; Plan; Approve; Implement

The Info-Tech difference:

  1. Create a unified change management process that balances risk and throughput of innovation.
  2. Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
  3. Establish and empower a Change Manager and Change Advisory Board (CAB) with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.

IT change is constant and is driven by:

Change Management:

  1. Operations - Operational releases, maintenance, vendor-driven updates, and security updates can all be key drivers of change. Example: ITSM version update
    • Major Release
    • Maintenance Release
    • Security Patch
  2. Business - Business-driven changes may include requests from other business departments that require IT’s support. Examples: New ERP or HRIS implementation
    • New Application
    • New Version
  3. Service desk → Incident & Problem - Some incident and problem tickets require a change to facilitate resolution of the incident. Examples: Outage necessitating update of an app (emergency change), a user request for new functionality to be added to an existing app
    • Workaround
    • Fix
  4. Configuration Management Database (CMDB) ↔ Asset Management - In addition to software and hardware asset dependencies, a configuration management database (CMDB) is used to keep a record of changes and is queried to assess change requests.
    • Hardware
    • Software

Insight summary

“The scope of change management is defined by each organization…the purpose of change management is to maximize the number of successful service and product changes by ensuring that the risk have been properly assessed, authorizing changes to process, and managing the change schedule.” – ALEXOS Limited, ITIL 4

Build a unified change management process balancing risk and change throughput.

Building a unified process that oversees all changes to the technical environment doesn’t have to be burdensome to be effective. However, the process is a necessary starting point to identifying cross dependencies and avoiding change collisions and change-related incidents.

Use an objective framework for estimating risk

Simply asking, “What is the risk?” will result in subjective responses that will likely minimize the perceived risk. The level of due diligence should align to the criticality of the systems or departments potentially impacted by the proposed changes.

Integrate your change process with your IT service management system

Change management in isolation will provide some stability, but maturing the process through service integrations will enable data-driven decisions, decrease bureaucracy, and enable faster and more stable throughput.

Change management and DevOps can work together effectively

Change and DevOps tend to be at odds, but the framework does not have to change. Lower risk changes in DevOps are prime candidates for the pre-approved category. Much of the responsibility traditionally assigned to the CAB can be diffused throughout the software development lifecycle.

Change management and DevOps can coexist

Shift the responsibility and rigor to earlier in the process.

  • If you are implementing change management in a DevOps environment, ensure you have a strong DevOps lifecycle. You may wish to refer to Info-Tech’s research Implementing DevOps Practices That Work.
  • Consider starting in this blueprint by visiting Appendix II to frame your approach to change management. Follow the blueprint while paying attention to the DevOps Callouts.

DEVOPS CALLOUTS

Look for these DevOps callouts throughout this storyboard to guide you along the implementation.

The image is a horizontal figure eight, with 7 arrows, each pointing into the next. They are labelled are follows: Plan; Create; Verify; Package; Release; Configure; Monitor. At the centre of the circles are the words Dev and Ops.

Successful change management will provide benefits to both the business and IT

Respond to business requests faster while reducing the number of change-related disruptions.

IT Benefits

  • Fewer change-related incidents and outages
  • Faster change turnaround time
  • Higher rate of change success
  • Less change rework
  • Fewer service desk calls related to poorly communicated changes

Business Benefits

  • Fewer service disruptions
  • Faster response to requests for new and enhanced functionalities
  • Higher rate of benefits realization when changes are implemented
  • Lower cost per change
  • Fewer “surprise” changes disrupting productivity

IT satisfaction with change management will drive business satisfaction with IT. Once the process is working efficiently, staff will be more motivated to adhere to the process, reducing the number of unauthorized changes. As fewer changes bypass proper evaluation and testing, service disruptions will decrease and business satisfaction will increase.

Change management improves core benefits to the business: the four Cs

Most organizations have at least some form of change control in place, but formalizing change management leads to the four Cs of business benefits:

Control

Change management brings daily control over the IT environment, allowing you to review every relatively new change, eliminate changes that would have likely failed, and review all changes to improve the IT environment.

Collaboration

Change management planning brings increased communication and collaboration across groups by coordinating changes with business activities. The CAB brings a more formalized and centralized communication method for IT.

Consistency

Request for change templates and a structured process result in implementation, test, and backout plans being more consistent. Implementing processes for pre-approved changes also ensures these frequent changes are executed consistently and efficiently.

Confidence

Change management processes will give your organization more confidence through more accurate planning, improved execution of changes, less failure, and more control over the IT environment. This also leads to greater protection against audits.

You likely need to improve change management more than any other infrastructure & operations process

The image shows a vertical bar graph. Each segment of the graph is labelled for an infrastructure/operations process. Each segment has two bars one for effectiveness, and another for importance. The first segment, Change Management, is highlighted, with its Effectiveness at a 6.2 and Importance at 8.6

Source: Info-Tech 2020; n=5,108 IT Professionals from 620 organizations

Of the eight infrastructure and operations processes measured in Info-Tech’s IT Management and Governance Diagnostic (MGD) program, change management consistently has the second largest gap between importance and effectiveness of these processes.

Executives and directors recognize the importance of change management but feel theirs is currently ineffective

Info-Tech’s IT Management and Governance Diagnostic (MGD) program assesses the importance and effectiveness of core IT processes. Since its inception, the MGD has consistently identified change management as an area for immediate improvement.

The image is a vertical bar graph, with four segments, each having 2 bars, one for Effectiveness and the other for Importance. The four segments are (with Effectiveness and Importance ratings in brackets, respectively): Frontline (6.5/8.6); Manager (6.6/8.9); Director (6.4/8.8); and Executive (6.1/8.8)

Source: Info-Tech 2020; n=5,108 IT Professionals from 620 organizations

Importance Scores

No importance: 1.0-6.9

Limited importance: 7.0-7.9

Significant importance: 8.0-8.9

Critical importance: 9.0-10.0

Effectiveness Scores

Not in place: n/a

Not effective: 0.0-4.9

Somewhat Ineffective: 5.0-5.9

Somewhat effective: 6.0-6.9

Very effective: 7.0-10.0

There are several common misconceptions about change management

Which of these have you heard in your organization?

Reality
“It’s just a small change; this will only take five minutes to do.” Even a small change can cause a business outage. That small fix could impact a large system connected to the one being fixed.
“Ad hoc is faster; too many processes slow things down.” Ad hoc might be faster in some cases, but it carries far greater risk. Following defined processes keeps systems stable and risk-averse.
“Change management is all about speed.” Change management is about managing risk. It gives the illusion of speed by reducing downtime and unplanned work.
“Change management will limit our capacity to change.” Change management allows for a better alignment of process (release management) with governance (change management).

Overcome perceived challenges to implementing change management to reap measurable reward

Before: Informal Change Management

Change Approval:

  • Changes do not pass through a formal review process before implementation.
  • 10% of released changes are approved.
  • Implementation challenge: Staff will resist having to submit formal change requests and assessments, frustrated at the prospect of having to wait longer to have changes approved.

Change Prioritization

  • Changes are not prioritized according to urgency, risk, and impact.
  • 60% of changes are urgent.
  • Implementation challenge: Influential stakeholders accustomed to having changes approved and deployed might resist having to submit changes to a standard cost-benefit analysis.

Change Deployment

  • Changes often negatively impact user productivity.
  • 25% of changes are realized as planned.
  • Implementation challenge: Engaging the business so that formal change freeze periods and regular maintenance windows can be established.

After: Right-Sized Change Management

Change Approval

  • All changes pass through a formal review process. Once a change is repeatable and well-tested, it can be pre-approved to save time. Almost no unauthorized changes are deployed.
  • 95% of changes are approved.
  • KPI: Decrease in change-related incidents

Change Prioritization

  • The CAB prioritizes changes so that the business is satisfied with the speed of change deployment.
  • 35% of changes are urgent.
  • KPI: Decrease in change turnaround time.

Change deployment

  • Users are always aware of impending changes and changes don’t interrupt critical business activities.
  • Over 80% of changes are realized as planned
  • KPI: Decrease in the number of failed deployments.

Info-Tech’s methodology for change management optimization focuses on building standardized processes

1. Define Change Management 2. Establish Roles and Workflows 3. Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities 4. Measure, Manage, and Maintain
Phase Steps

1.1 Assess Maturity

1.2 Categorize Changes and Build Your Risk Assessment

2.1 Determine Roles and Responsibilities

2.2 Build Core Workflows

3.1 Design the RFC

3.2 Establish Post-Implementation Activities

4.1 Identify Metrics and Build the Change Calendar

4.2 Implement the Project

Change Management Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) Change Management Project Summary Template
Phase Deliverables
  • Change Management Maturity Assessment Tool
  • Change Management Risk Assessment Tool
  • Change Manager Job Description
  • Change Management Process Library
  • Request for Change (RFC) Form Template
  • Change Management Pre-Implementation Checklist
  • Change Management Post-Implementation Checklist
  • Change Management Metrics Tool
  • Change Management
  • Communications Plan
  • Change Management Roadmap Tool

Blueprint deliverables

Each step of this blueprint is accompanied by supporting deliverables to help you accomplish your goals:

Change Management Process Library

Document your normal, pre-approved, and emergency change lifecycles with the core process workflows .

Change Management Risk Assessment Tool

Test Drive your impact and likelihood assessment questionnaires with the Change Management Risk Assessment Tool.

Project Summary Template

Summarize your efforts in the Optimize IT Change Management Improvement Initiative: Project Summary Template.

Change Management Roadmap Tool

Record your action items and roadmap your steps to a mature change management process.

Key Deliverable:

Change Management SOP

Document and formalize your process starting with the change management standard operating procedure (SOP).

These case studies illustrate the value of various phases of this project

Define Change Management

Establish Roles and Workflows

Define RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

Measure, Manage, and Maintain

A major technology company implemented change management to improve productivity by 40%. This case study illustrates the full scope of the project.

A large technology firm experienced a critical outage due to poor change management practices. This case study illustrates the scope of change management definition and strategy.

Ignorance of change management process led to a technology giant experiencing a critical cloud outage. This case study illustrates the scope of the process phase.

A manufacturing company created a makeshift CMDB in the absence of a CMDB to implement change management. This case study illustrates the scope of change intake.

A financial institution tracked and recorded metrics to aid in the success of their change management program. This case study illustrates the scope of the implementation phase.

Working through this project with Info-Tech can save you time and money

Engaging in a Guided Implementation doesn’t just offer valuable project advice, it also results in significant cost savings.

Guided Implementation Measured Vale
Phase 1: Define Change Management
  • We estimate Phase 1 activities will take 2 FTEs 10 days to complete on their own, but the time saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology will cut that time in half, thereby saving $3,100 (2 FTEs * 5 days * $80,000/year).

Phase 2: Establish Roles and Workflows

  • We estimate Phase 2 will take 2 FTEs 10 days to complete on their own, but the time saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology will cut that time in half, thereby saving $3,100 (2 FTEs * 5 days * $80,000/year).
Phase 3: Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities
  • We estimate Phase 3 will take 2 FTEs 10 days to complete on their own, but the time saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology will cut that time in half, thereby saving $3,100 (2 FTEs * 5 days * $80,000/year).

Phase 4: Measure, Manage, and Maintain

  • We estimate Phase 4 will take 2 FTEs 5 days to complete on their own, but the time saved by using Info-Tech’s methodology will cut that time in half, thereby saving $1,500 (2 FTEs * 2.5 days * $80,000/year).
Total Savings $10,800

Case Study

Industry: Technology

Source: Daniel Grove, Intel

Intel implemented a robust change management program and experienced a 40% improvement in change efficiency.

Founded in 1968, the world’s largest microchip and semiconductor company employs over 100,000 people. Intel manufactures processors for major players in the PC market including Apple, Lenovo, HP, and Dell.

ITIL Change Management Implementation

With close to 4,000 changes occurring each week, managing Intel’s environment is a formidable task. Before implementing change management within the organization, over 35% of all unscheduled downtime was due to errors resulting from change and release management. Processes were ad hoc or scattered across the organization and no standards were in place.

Results

After a robust implementation of change management, Intel experienced a number of improvements including automated approvals, the implementation of a formal change calendar, and an automated RFC form. As a result, Intel improved change productivity by 40% within the first year of the program’s implementation.

Define Change Management

Establish Roles and Workflows

Define RFC and Post-Implementation Activities

Measure, Manage, and Maintain

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

9.6/10
Overall Impact

$51,137
Average $ Saved

33
Average Days Saved

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real-time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 4-phase advisory process. You'll receive 9 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Define Change Management
  • Call 1: Introduce change concepts
  • Call 2: Assess current maturity
  • Call 3: Identify target-state capabilities

Guided Implementation 2: Establish Roles and Workflows
  • Call 1: Review roles and responsibilities
  • Call 2: Review core change processes

Guided Implementation 3: Define the RFC and Post-Implementation Activities
  • Call 1: Define the change intake process
  • Call 2: Create pre-implementation and post-implementation checklists

Guided Implementation 4: Measure, Manage, and Maintain
  • Call 1: Review metrics
  • Call 2: Create roadmap

Authors

Benedict Chang

Jordan Detmers

Sumit Chowdhury

Contributors

  • Jeff Fournie, Project Lead, Enbridge Gas
  • Dian Zhang Cui, Senior Network Manager, Thryv
  • Aderemi Ajagbe, System Architect, Visa
  • Peter Chang, Infrastructure Manager, Alberta Energy Regulator (ret.)
  • Derek Shank, Head of Research, Stratscale
  • Two anonymous contributors
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