Plan and Schedule stage - Planning the change request

The Change Assessment, Planning, and Scheduling stage, is one of the most important stages of the change control process. In this stage, the Change Manager, Coordinator, and Implementers plan a forward schedule of changes (FSC). They perform the following key activities:

• Plan all the requests approved for implementation, set target dates, and estimate the risks and costs involved. 
• Change impact analysis and re-evaluation of risk, if needed.
• Create key documents that can include:
  • Build or development plan
  • Test or QA plan
  • Install plan
  • Backout plan (This is the most important document as it describes how to successful get back to a working state again, in case of any failure.)
• Create, assign, and schedule the implementation tasks
• Schedule the change request
• Review the implementation approvers, as required

In this stage, plan for the following important details. Approvers require all this planning information to decide whether to approve or reject the change request.

• Set the request's status to Planning, and specify the planned dates.
• Estimate the time that the project will take.
• Estimate any applicable down time associated with the request.
• Register an available or unavailable time segment to perform the request.
• Assess the risks and impact of the request.
• Specify the business justification for the request, if necessary.
• Define the tasks.
• Calculate the costs associated with the request.
• Submit the request for approval.

When you have finished planning the request, and have supplied all the information that the approvers require to review the request, you can submit it to the approval process.

The following process flow diagrams explain the recommended steps and the roles that are a part of the Assessment, Planning, and Scheduling stage while creating implementation tasks. However, you can use Task Phase Management to create the planning specific tasks, if required.

Part 1 of the Assessment, Planning, and Scheduling stage process flow diagram has the Change Coordinator working with the Change Manager and Change Implementer to:

• Assess the impact analysis, perform any risk re-evaluation if required, and correct any scheduling conflicts
• Create the needed documents
• Create, assign, and schedule the implementation tasks
• Finalize the change schedule
• Review and adjust the approvers for the implementation stage, if required

Part 2 of the Assessment, Planning, and Scheduling stage process flow diagram has the Change Coordinator working with the Change Implementer to:

• Assign and schedule implementation tasks
• Ensure that the needed documents are assigned to be completed to prepare for the Implementation Approval stage. You can also use the task phasing option to organize these activities.

Once the change request assessment, planning, and scheduling is complete, the change request proceeds to the Change Plan and Schedule Review stage.

Change Plan and Schedule Review

This stage allows the Change Manager to work with the CAB to:

• Review the change request for completeness
• Ensure that the change request schedule dates are correct and without conflicts
• Work with the Change Coordinator to adjust details, as required, before moving the change request into the next approval phase

The following process flow diagram explains the recommended steps and the roles that play a part in the Change Plan and Schedule Review stage.

Once the change request review is complete, the change request proceeds to the Authorization for Implementation approval stage.