What change management tools are available to help manage my change control process?

What change management tools are available to help manage my change control process?

What are some common change management tools for DR?

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Change management is part of the Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) environment. There are a number of change management tools available for your disaster recovery (DR) environment. Some of the most common change management tools available include ChangeGear 4.5 from Sunview Software, Numara FootPrints by Numara Software; Rational ClearQuest from IBM Corp. and SysAid Help Desk Software and Asset Management from SysAid Technologies. These tools work in similar ways to simplify change management tasks that you might encounter while managing your change control process. However, some environments don't even need specific change management tools to manage their change control process. Instead, they can simply use a spreadsheet to collect and monitor the data required.

This table lists the basic categories and actions you need to manage your change control process and track changes in your environment.

Category

Action

Application name

Enter both the application name and any technical name of the application.

Dependency (Input)

Enter this if the application requires some input from another application or is dependent upon another application.

Dependency (Output)

Enter for tracking purposes if this application is a dependency for another application.

Operational platform

Enter whether the application executes on a mainframe, server or PC. Also add the OS used, with details of the version and release date.

Used by

Name the departments using the application.

Latest production version

Add information about the current production version.

Latest test version

Add information regarding the latest version being tested.

Last changed by

Enter contact information for person who made the last change to the production version.

Reason for change

Detail the reason for the latest change to the operating environment.

Additional comments

Add any additional or relevant information to this entry.

You can also add more categories if they are applicable to your IT environment, but make sure you have a history of changes accessible as well. Whether you choose a change management tool or create your own spreadsheet, it's important to document the changes to data storage environment and make sure everything is current.

This was first published in June 2010

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