Modernize Change Management While Minimizing Business Risk
Executive Summary
Technology is changing the world around us faster, and with
greater impact, than ever before. The consumerization of
enterprise IT continues to challenge working practices, while
the proliferation of devices and endpoints is forcing us to
build Internet of Things strategies for our enterprises. The
explosion of virtualization and cloud technology is also
introducing revolutionary, new ways to consume services.
Managing a complex infrastructure is difficult; effectively
managing continual change across a complex infrastructure
can make or break an enterprise.
Finding the balance of agility and control is critical for IT
organizations that are looking to minimize risk and become
business enablers. This white paper discusses three key
principles for creating a new approach to change
management—one that allows the IT department to manage
change more effectively.
• Automate with purpose: eliminate risk and do it sooner
rather than later
• Move from data to insight: make better decisions with
contextual data
• Empower the occasional user: make the experience simple
and intuitive
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AUTOMATION WITH PURPOSE
Typically, machines are better at implementing changes than humans are. Humans can forget things, miss a step, or perhaps
misspell a word. Machines and computers don’t make these errors. That’s not to say they aren’t fallible: The stock market
“Flash Crash” on May 6, 2010 is a great example of how technology automation can be disastrous when not managed properly.
This is why it’s important for automation to be implemented with the right purpose.
Differing types of automation can facilitate change management at various points, such as:
• Discovery automation: to populate the configuration management database (CMDB) with assets and relationships
• Workflow automation: to streamline approvals
• Deployment automation: to automate changes to infrastructure and applications
• IT process automation: for closed-loop change management involving disparate technologies
When implemented well, automation can empower the workforce to be more productive. Automated IT is excellent at
documenting changes, creating an audit trail, and generating useful data. Automation is also critical for eliminating manual
errors and therefore reducing risk. The benefits are manifold, so the real question is why many organizations delay using
automation as part of change management.
To understand why many companies hold back on automation, it’s helpful to understand some industry backstory. IT service
management (ITSM) and the ITIL framework were created to deliver process management. In the past, there was a common
view that if something wasn’t working, you needed to fix the process first. When the process was perfect, you could you look to
automate it. The reality today is that automation can eliminate the need for a process, at least in the traditional sense.
Automation is your ticket to a living, self-updating, current CMDB. It is your pass to self-documenting changes and it’s also the
best way to minimize errors during releases and deployments. Taking the automation plunge is the best way to supercharge you
ITSM or ITOM strategy.
Before you charge ahead and automate everything, be sure that you fully understand the purpose of automation for your own
organization. Be clear about the benefits to the business and ensure that workforce empowerment is part of your strategy.
Finally, make sure that a healthy portion of your purpose is in facilitating more efficient, effective, and reliable change.
MOVING FROM DATA TO INSIGHT
Enterprise IT systems and components generate a lot of data. From data, we can derive information, and good information, in
context, gives us insight. It’s insight that helps us make better decisions.
THE DATA IT ORGANIZATIONS COLLECTS ENABLE US TO DO MANY THINGS:
GENERATE
REPORTS
IDENTIFY
PERFORMANCE ISSUES
PERFORM
COST ANALYSIS
AUTOMATE
PROCESSES
AND
MUCH MORE
Change management is one of the most important activities we undertake that relies heavily on all of this data. When we have
the right data and the right information, we make better decisions and our chances of success are high. When we don’t have
enough information, or we have bad information, we run the risk of a failed change, which can impact revenue. Successfully
managing a change depends on our ability to turn data into insight by understanding it in context.
For example, asset managers implement many automated discovery tools to keep an inventory of client devices or data center
assets. This is an example of collecting data: Knowing simply that a server exists might be sufficient for this use case. For change
management, we need to know that the server exists and also the applications it supports and what business services are
dependent on these applications. If you knew that a particular server was supporting a critical, revenue-generating business
service, you would have useful insight that could help you plan a proposed change more effectively.
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