Assessing Risk in Change Management ⚠️🔍

Importance of Risk Assessment 📊

• Purpose: Determine the appropriate level of effort and resources required for testing and implementing changes based on the risk involved.

Factors to Consider 🧩

1. Service Criticality 🔑

   • Mission-Critical Services: Essential for operations (e.g., centralized authentication systems, billing systems, backup systems).

   • Non-Critical Services: Less impact if disrupted (e.g., informational websites, internal ticket systems).

2. User Impact 🌐

   • High Impact: Services with a large number of users or critical functions require more rigorous testing and backup plans.

   • Low Impact: Services affecting fewer users or less critical functions may need less intensive measures.

Investment in Testing and Reversion 🛠️

• Test Instances: Always use a test environment to validate changes.

• Backup Plans: Have a rollback or reversion plan in place.

Service Availability Agreements 📅

• User Agreements: Companies often schedule disruptive maintenance during low-impact times (e.g., weekends) as agreed upon with users.

• Priority Setting: Address issues that critically affect work higher than minor issues that are less disruptive.

Summary 📋

1. Evaluate Service Importance: Assess whether the service is mission-critical or less significant.

2. Determine User Impact: Consider how many users are affected and prioritize accordingly.

3. Allocate Resources Wisely: Invest time and effort in testing and rollback plans based on the service's criticality and impact.

4. Adhere to Agreements: Follow user agreements for maintenance windows and set priorities based on service impact.