Change Mgmt cheat sheet

Change types: standard (pre-approved, low risk, repeatable), normal (requires assessment and authorisation), emergency (expedited path with retrospective review).

The change lifecycle: request → record → assess and classify → authorise → plan and schedule → implement → verify → review and close.

RFC (Request for Change) minimum fields: description, justification, affected configuration items, risk and impact, rollback plan, test evidence, requested date, approver.

CAB (Change Advisory Board) role: assess risk, impact and readiness, prioritise and schedule; it advises and authorises, it does not implement changes.

CAB composition typically includes change manager, technical specialists, service owner, business representative, and security/compliance; membership scales with change class.

Change freeze (blackout window): a period when normal changes are prohibited, e.g. financial year-end, peak trading, major release cutover.

Seven Rs of change assessment: raised, reason, return, risks, resources, responsible, relationships - used to decide approve, defer, or reject.

Change success metrics: percentage of changes causing incidents, percentage of emergency changes, percentage of unauthorised changes, change lead time, change failure rate.

Configuration management linkage: every change should identify affected configuration items (CIs) in the CMDB so impact analysis and rollback scope are accurate.

Kotter's 8 steps: urgency, guiding coalition, vision, communicate, enable action, short-term wins, consolidate, anchor in culture - sequential, and skipping steps undermines adoption.

Lewin's model: unfreeze → change (transition) → refreeze; refreezing is where new behaviours become standard practice and are reinforced by policy and metrics.

ADKAR (Prosci): Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement - individual change; the weakest element determines progress, and Reinforcement prevents reversion.

Bridges' transition model: endings → neutral zone → new beginnings; the neutral zone is where productivity dips and ambiguity peaks, so it needs structured support.

Stakeholder analysis: map power versus interest; high-power/high-interest = manage closely, high-power/low-interest = keep satisfied, low-power/high-interest = keep informed.

Resistance is data: classify as rational (cost, workload), emotional (fear, identity), or political (loss of influence), and match the response to the cause.

Readiness assessment inputs: change history, capability gaps, leadership alignment, capacity for change, and prior failed initiatives.

Communication planning: sender, audience segment, key message, channel, frequency, feedback mechanism, and owner - repeated through multiple channels to counter the 'one email is enough' failure.

Change curve (Kubler-Ross adapted): shock/denial → anger/frustration → bargaining → depression → acceptance; leaders adjust support style per stage rather than expecting immediate buy-in.

Benefits realisation: define baseline, target, measure, owner, and review date before implementation; adoption metrics (usage, compliance) are leading indicators, business KPIs are lagging.