Chapter 2
· "Response to problem" input allows administrator to generate changes with no
documentation
· Requests for change from managers is rarely documented, leaving no trail as to why a
change was made
· No communication between staff members, meaning not all administrators will
understand which changes are being made and why
· No coordination of multiple changes; administrators work independently
Additional problems that are not directly related to the process and are less obvious include:
· Senior administrator has most knowledge but doesn't document well--this problem
creates a strong risk of the network being difficult to support if this person leaves
· No provisions for network changes to be retained, forming a historical trail
· No automatic documentation of changes to network devices
· Multiple interfaces required to manage each vendors' devices, which increases training
and support costs
· Few tools (all vendor-specific) for automation
With a list of the problems in place, you can start modifying your process to create a formal
change-management process. Your problems can probably be addressed by taking action in
general categories:
· Reviewing and approving proposed changes
· Prioritizing changes
· Assigning and accounting for risk
· Monitoring pending changes
· Documenting and archiving changes
· Restoring stability after changes
Although the last step appears redundant--the point of the process is to ensure that changes don't
introduce instability--every change won't work out every time. Thus, a successful change-
management process must account for human error and provide a means of restoring the
environment to a known-good configuration in the event that instability does occur.
In the next six sections, I'll discuss each of these categories and walk you through the steps of
adding each one to your formal change-management process. Keep in mind that the process
developed here will be necessarily generic and probably over-complex for many organizations.
My goal is to simply show the possibilities
In Chapter 8, I'll provide examples of real-world change-management processes designed to fit a
broad array of specific situations.
29