change management exception approval process update v1.2b

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Change Management Exception Approval Process Update Unrestricted/Daytime & Extended Maintenance Window Emergency Change Request for Standard & Minor Changes Version 1.2b

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Change ManagementException Approval Process Update

Unrestricted/Daytime & Extended Maintenance Window

Emergency Change Request for Standard & Minor Changes

Version 1.2b

SummaryThe following updates will be made in ServiceNow to address the following:• Update to the Unrestricted/Daytime & Extended

Maintenance Window exception approval process. • Update to the Emergency approval process (EMOP).

**Note - this update to the Emergency approval process does not affect Core EMOPs. That process will remain the same**

Intended Audience• Users that create Change Requests• Users/Approvers that are assigned approval tasks

ContentsI. Feature Request Release ScheduleII. Unrestricted/Daytime & Extended Maintenance Window

Approval ProcessIII. Reason for ChangeIV. How It Works Daytime/Extended Approvals

I. How It Works for Submitters of Change RequestsII. How It Works for Approvers of Change Requests

V. Emergency Change Request (EMOP) for Standard & Minor Changes Approval Process

VI. Reason for ChangeVII. How It Works EMOP Approvals

I. How It Works for Submitters of EMOPsII. How It Works for Approvers of EMOPs

• Description: Partial rollback of FEAT0012058 - Daytime approvals

• Pilot Release 4/16• Final Release 5/9

FEAT0012327

• Description: New field in Change Request form "Reason for Emergency"

• Pilot Release 4/16• Final Release 5/22

FEAT0012368

• Description: Audit and update the approval workflow for ECAB

• Pilot Release 5/22• Final Release 5/31

FEAT0011972

Feature Request Release Schedule

Unrestricted/Daytime & Extended Maintenance Window Approval Process

FEAT0012327

Reason for ChangeThis update will improve the current process of attaching emails from various approvers, and standardize the requirements for seeking approval in the form of a new field “Daytime/Extended Maintenance Window Questionnaire.”

No longer will the manual process of obtaining email approvals and attaching them to the ticket be required. ServiceNow will do that for you. The system will automatically generate an approval task which can be responded to by email from the designated approver(s), or it can be approved by logging into ServiceNow.

This update will help reduce the approval delays as often experienced by new users who submit change requests in ServiceNow that are unaware of the current ad-hoc process.

How It Works: Daytime/Extended Approvals

Request Approval

Change is Daytime

or Extended?

CMC Approval

No

Yes

DAYTIME CAB GROUP

ServiceNow Creates

Approval Task & Emails

Approver(s)

Approved to

Implement

Replaces Manual Process of Emailing Approvers and Attaching Emails to Ticket

How It Works: Submitters of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

When a Change Request is created with the Change Window equal to Unrestricted/Daytime or Extended, a pop-up message will appear informing the submitter to complete the Daytime/Extended Maintenance Window Questionnaire in order to obtain approval.

How It Works: Submitters of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

The Daytime/Extended Maintenance Window Questionnaire is located at the bottom of the Change Request form, above the work notes section. There are four questions to answer which help the approvers determine if the Change Request can be approved for work outside the standard maintenance window.

How It Works: Submitters of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

Here’s an example of a completed questionnaire. Please delete the words “Answer here” and replace them with the appropriate answer.

How It Works: Submitters of Daytime/Extended Change RequestsHere’s a closer look at the questionnaire, with a sample answer, and some guidance on how to answer each question. Failure to answer a question could result in a rejection and likewise a delay in approval, so if a question does not fit the scope of the work being performed, please state the reason instead of leaving the question blank – the more information , the better.

1) Why does the activity need to occur outside of standard maintenance window hours? Land Lord is requiring the work be done during the day. Typical answers include access restrictions (stated here), or safety - site is located on a water tower which prohibits work at night, or the site is located in an unsafe area. Please be sure to check the most recent information on a site’s access restrictions.

2) What will be the expected impact to the network?Each site will be down for approximately 2hrs, one at a time, one site per day, while the work is be performed. Impact is defined here as how long the site will be out of service while the work is being performed.

3) Is this an opened or closed ring?Closed. Typical answers will be opened, closed, or spur. The intent of this question is to determine if the site goes down, how many other sites may be impacted if there is no redundancy on an opened ring.

4) Have you confirmed there are no incidents opened?There are no open incidents related to the sites listed in this mop ORThis is a comprehensive mop with over 100 sites and the incidents open are too numerous to list.This question helps determine the health of the network, and if this work should be performed. A quick way to search for incidents is to put the Site ID in the global search box in ServiceNow.

How It Works: Submitters of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

After the questionnaire is complete, and ready for review, click Request Approval. When the ticket is in the state “Pending DAYTIME CAB GROUP,” approval requests will be generated by ServiceNow and sent to the members of this group. This process will be covered in the next section. If you are a submitter of a change request your portion of this process is complete, but please be aware of any state changes to the ticket, and do not assume that it will automatically be approved. The approvers may send the ticket back to you to make changes and resubmit for approval.

How It Works: Approvers of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

Here’s an example of an approval notification email generated by ServiceNow. This email will be sent to members of the DAYTIME CAB GROUP. Only one approval is needed by any one of the members.

How It Works: Approvers of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

The Daytime/Extended Maintenance Window Questionnaire will be included in the body of the email. Below the questionnaire are links that an approver can click on to approve (or reject) a request. ***Note the field may be labeled in the email as “Daytime work addendum” – we have opened ENG20057 to correct this, otherwise the information in this field is correct.

If this method is used, there is no need to log into ServiceNow to approve a ticket.

How It Works: Approvers of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

When an approver clicks on the link to approve a request, it will create an email like this, and include a system address in the To: field, a Subject entry, and an Ref: ID in the body of the ticket. Please do not change these values, as ServiceNow uses this to process the email and make the changes in the system. If you would like to add comments to be recorded in the ticket, you can do so in the main body of the email.

How It Works: Approvers of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

After ServiceNow receives the email, it will process it (usually takes from 3-5 minutes after sending the email), and move it on to the next state.

In this example, the ticket has successfully been approved out of “Pending DAYTIME CAB GROUP,” and is now in the state “Pending CMC Approval.”

Any message included in the email will be recorded here in the activity log as well.

How It Works: Approvers of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

For approving tickets through ServiceNow, the recommended procedure is to build a filter from the Change Management Module viewing all active Change Requests with the following filter conditions:

Click on the grey arrow (highlighted in the red box), and add these conditions:1) State is Pending DAYTIME CAB GROUP2) Approval is Requested

It is also helpful to change the columns displayed to include fields such as the Short Description, so that an approver can quickly determine the scope of work. You can change the columns displayed by clicking on the gear sign (highlighted in the red circle).

When ready to review, click on the Change Request number to view the ticket (red arrow).

How It Works: Approvers of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

Once in the ticket, scroll down to the bottom to locate the Daytime/Extended Maintenance Window Questionnaire and review the answers.

How It Works: Approvers of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

When ready to approve (or reject), scroll further down to the Approvers section, find your name in the Approver column, and right-click on the “Requested” field (the red arrow), and select Approve.

If you want to make some notes to go along with your approval, then click on the “Requested” field and it will take you to the approval task form (next slide).

How It Works: Approvers of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

Enter any notes (not mandatory for approval), but if sending back (rejecting) please enter some notes so that the submitter will know what to change before resubmitting.

When ready, click “Approve,” and then ServiceNow will bring you back to the Change Request form.

How It Works: Approvers of Daytime/Extended Change Requests

The approver’s portion of the DAYTIME CAB GROUP is now complete, which is verified by the state change to the next step in the approval process.

***Remember only one approval is needed by any one member of the DAYTIME CAB GROUP to satisfy this stage of approval. To avoid any possibly delays in approval, please confirm that another member of your team is included in this approval group.

Emergency Change Request (EMOP) for Standard & Minor ChangesApproval Process

FEAT0012368 FEAT0011972

Reason for ChangeThis update in ServiceNow will align the current Emergency approval process with the current organizational structure, and standardize the requirements for seeking approval in the form of a new field “Reason for Emergency.”

The Reason for Emergency field is based on the Network Governance definition of an Emergency Request (Sect. 2.1.0 Change Categories).

Emergency (EMOP) Requests which cite the Emergency Reason of “Business Need,” will be routed to the designated approvers, for review and approval, similar to how the Daytime approvals work.

This update will help reduce the approval delays as many EMOPs become stuck in the “Manager Review” state, as the current EMOP approval hierarchy in ServiceNow is out-of-date.

How It Works: Emergency Approvals

Request Approval

Emergency Reason is Business Need?

CMC Approval(Pending ECAB)

No

Yes

Customer Emergency Approval

ServiceNow Creates

Approval Task & Emails

Approver(s)

Approved to

Implement

Replaces Manual Process of Emailing Approvers and Attaching Emails to Ticket

How It Works: Submitters of Emergency Change Requests

When a Change Request is created and Urgency is Emergency, another field will be displayed titled “Reason for Emergency.”

This field will determine what approval workflow the emergency request will follow.

How It Works: Submitters of Emergency Change Requests

The Urgency field’s default value is Standard, but will be changed automatically by ServiceNow based on these conditions when a submitter clicks “Request Approval”:

1. If the Impact Length is Less than 15 min per sector or None and the Planned Start Date is under 24 Hours from requesting approval

Then ServiceNow will change the Urgency field from Standard to Emergency.

This condition verifies that if the requested change is being performed under 24hrs from approval then it is an Emergency.

2. If the Impact Length is Greater than 15 min per sectorand Planned Start Date is under 15 Days from requesting approval

Then ServiceNow will change the Urgency field from Standard to Emergency.

This business rule is further defined as if the service affecting change is over 15 minutes in length, and the planned changed is under 15 days from approval, then it is an Emergency. This is commonly referred to as the 15-and-15 rule.

How It Works: Submitters of Emergency Change Requests

The “Reason for Emergency” field is based on the Network Governance definition of an Emergency Change (Sect 2.1.0):

“Emergency Change: An Emergency Change is a maintenance action performed to avoid customer service degradation, impact or for critical business needs. It is for items that need maintenance that are not currently causing customer impact but has a high potential to impact customers very soon (imminent impact).”

The submitter must decide between the two choices:

1. Select “Service Degradation” if the reason for the emergency request is to avoid customer service degradation or impact.

2. Select “Business Need” if the reason for the emergency request is for critical business needs.

How It Works: Submitters of Emergency Change Requests

The final area that requires input from the submitter is the Emergency Justification Details field (formerly titled “Reason for Change”).

This text field is located under the Short description and allows the submitter to include more details pertaining to the emergency request. This field will be examined by the approvers to determine if the emergency request can be approved.

Submitters should answer in accordance to the choice made in the Reason for Emergency. If the submitter chooses Business Need as the Reason for Emergency, then the Emergency Justification Details field should have information to support that reason.

Likewise, if Service Degradation has been selected as the Reason for Emergency, then this field should contain information supporting that choice.

The submitters portion of an Emergency request is now complete.***Note – If the emergency change is to address a service outage (loss of service), then an incident ticket must be opened. Please contact the NOC to report the outage.

How It Works: Approvers of Emergency Change Requests

The approval workflow has been completed by the development team, and the pilot process using this new workflow has started on 5/22.

The following slides cover the approval process for this new workflow.

There have been no changes to any of the slides since the previous version of this deck, as the process is working as designed.

Any issues that arise during the pilot period will be addressed, and final updates will be made by 5/31 when the pilot ends and the release is finalized.

How It Works: Approvers of Emergency Change Requests

Here’s an example of an approval notification email generated by ServiceNow. This email will be sent to members of the Customer Emergency Approval group. Only one approval is needed by any one of the members.

How It Works: Approvers of Emergency Change Requests

The Emergency Justification Details field will be included in the body of the email. Below are links that an approver can click on to approve (or reject) a request. ***Note the field may be labeled in the email as “Reason for Change” – we have opened ENG20057 to correct this, otherwise the information in this field is correct.

If this method is used, there is no need to log into ServiceNow to approve a ticket.

How It Works: Approvers of Emergency Change Requests

When an approver clicks on the link to approve a request, it will generate a new email, and include the system address in the To: field, a Subject entry, and an Ref: ID in the body of the ticket. Please do not change these values, as ServiceNow uses this to process the email and make the changes in the system. If you would like to add comments to be recorded in the ticket, you can do so in the main body of the email.

How It Works: Approvers of Emergency Change Requests

This concludes the section on approving Emergency Change Requests.

Approving Emergency requests in ServiceNow is similar to the approval process for DAYTIME CAB GROUP (see slides 19-21), but instead use the filter state “Customer Emergency Approval.”

More Info

This file can be found on NTM: https://clearntm.service-now.com/kb_view.do?sysparm_article=

KB0010064

Version Date Pages Updated By

Draft 4/16/13 1-9 Chris Digangi

0.1 4/23/13 11, 4 “

0.9 4/30/13 12-15, 4 “

1.0 5/2/13 16-24, 4 “

1.1 5/7/13 25-33, 4 “

1.2b 5/22/13 29, 4

Version History