Change Management Policy

Effective Date

12/16/2014

Originator

Associate Vice President of Technology

Scope

ITS Staff

Policy Background

In order to better inform and prepare the campus community for changes to campus systems and the network, it has become necessary to create a system and policy to coordinate changes.

Policy Statement

Information Technology Services (ITS) will coordinate changes to systems and networks using a change management system.  These changes will be communicated to ITS staff and to the campus as needed.  ITS reserves Wednesday mornings from midnight to 7am, and Saturday mornings from 6am to 10am to perform system and network maintenance.

Policy Details

  • Information Technology Services reserves the following times each week for system and network maintenance:
    • Thursday mornings from 12:01 am to 7:00 am
    • Saturday mornings from 6:00 am to 10:00 am.
  • No standard changes will be permitted during the following times:
    • End of Semesters
      • Start: 12:01 AM on the Monday before the first day of final exams.
      • End: 11:59 PM on the day grades are due.
    • Start of Fall & Spring Semesters
      • Start:  12:01 AM on the Monday of the week prior to the First Day of Class
      • End:  11:59 PM on the Monday after the First Day of Class.
  • The Change Management Board must approve all planned service outages, including those scheduled outside the weekly maintenance windows.
  • Planned changes that may disrupt any campus information service must be documented with a Request for Change form (RFC). Requests to add a new service, or discontinue an existing service, also must be documented with an RFC, and appropriate change to the Service Catalog.
  • Request for Change forms must document the following information regarding the proposed change:
    • change requester and contact information
    • date of the change request
    • staff assigned to make the change
    • justification for the change
    • services affected
    • start date and time of the change
    • time needed to complete the change, including time needed to revert a change if test procedures are not successful
    • tasks to perform as part of the change, and tests to ensure successful completion
    • a description of the restore plan if the change was not performed successfully
    • the date of the last known reliable back-up made before the change
  • The members of the campus community that will be affected by the change must be notified prior to the change being executed. 

Exceptions

During an unplanned outage, emergency changes may be made to systems with the approval of the Associate Vice President of Technology.

Communication

Changes are communicated to ITS thru a Microsoft Teams channel.  Campus wide changes will be communicated thru MyFurman channels or via email from the CIO account.

 

 

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