Recording the change activities

You might need to modify a change request with work history entries that you add during its lifecycle, in order to document activities performed or information gathered. For example, you can track a change request's progress by recording the steps that you took to implement it in the work history.

You might want to add work information about the following activities:

• General Information — Notes about the record. For example, you might want to add a note that a particular CI was deployed, and include the date.
• Planning — Notes about a plan to implement a global change throughout your organization.
• Implementation — Installation and back-out procedures for the change.
• Costing and Charging — Additional information about the cost of the current CI, incident, change, and so on. For example, you might want to add a note that the cost of maintaining a CI was split between two cost centers, or that the cost to implement a change was under budget.

Any user with change related permissions — User, Master, Viewer, or Submitter — can add or modify work info from the Change console or the change request in Modify mode. However, only users with Change Master permissions can add work info to closed Change requests.

Use the following procedures to add work information about activities performed for the current change request.

To add or modify work information in a change request when using the Best Practice view

1. Open the change request.
2. To add new work information, under the Add Work Info details section on the Work Detail tab, enter the following information:
   • Notes — Enter the details of your work information record.
   • Attachment — Click to add any attachments related to the work information. You can add up to three files.
3. Click Advancedto select the work information type and add any additional attachments.
   1. From the Work Info Type list, select the type of work information to add.
   2. In the Attachment fields, add any additional attachments required for the work information. You can add up to three files.

   3. From the Locked list, select Yes or Noto lock the log.

      Warning

      If you select Yes, you cannot modify the work log after you save it. A locked work log can only be modified by a user with the functional role of a Infrastructure Change Master.

   4. From the View Accesslist, specify the level of access to the work entry:
      • Select Internal if you want only users with application permissions for BMC Change Management to see the entry.

      • Select Publicif you want everyone with access to the system to see the entry, including requesters.

        Note

        The information in this note applies to environments that also run BMC Service Request Management.
        
        When a work note is created in a change request that originated from the BMC Service Request Management console and is marked as Public, the work note also appears in the request's activity log in the Request Entry console of BMC Service Request Management. If the work note is updated, the original work note remains in the request's activity log, but the updated information is placed in a new entry in the request's activity log.
        
        If the work note in the incident request is updated and the Assignee marks it as Internal, the original work note remains in the request's activity log, but the updated information is not displayed.

4. When you finish updating the change request, under Add Work Info, click Save.
   The Save operation adds your entry to the work history.
5. To view or update the entries in the work information, select the work info record and click view .
6. Under the Edit Work Info section:
   1. Update the required fields.
   2. To remove an attachment, click delete for that attachment.
   3. Click Save.
7. To view a report of selected activities that you performed against this request, select the records from the work info table and click report .
8. To view the history of when and by whom each of the work information was added, click history .
9. Click Save.

To add work information to a change request when using the Classic view

1. Open the Change request.
2. On the Work Info tab click Create.
3. From the Work Info Type list, select the type of work information to add.
4. From the Source list, select the source of this information.
   Information sources can include email, system assignment, or the web.
5. Enter the details of your work information record in the Summary and Details or Notes fields.
6. To add an attachment to the record, right-click in the attachment table, and then choose Add.

7. From the Locked list, select Yes or Noto lock the log.

   Warning

   If you select Yes, you cannot modify the work log after you save it. A locked work log can only be modified by a user with the functional role of a Infrastructure Change Master.

8. From the View Accesslist, specify the level of access to the work entry:
   • Select Internal if you want only users with application permissions for BMC Change Management to see the entry.
   • Select Public if you want everyone with access to the system to see the entry, including requesters.
9. Perform one of the following actions:

   • (version 8.1.01 and later) When you finish updating the record, click Save. 

     The Save operation adds your entry to the work log history. If your user ID does not have permission to modify the record, the Save button is disabled. In this case, clicking the Add to Work Info History button saves the work info entry.

   • (version 8.1.00 ) When you finish updating the change request, click Save.

     The Save operation adds your entry to the work history. The Show field enables you to filter specific work entries based on the type of activity that appears in the table.

10. To view a report of selected activities that you performed against this request, select the records from the work info table and click Report.
11. To view the history of when and by whom the work information was added, click History.

12. To view or update all entries in the work information, click View.
    In the Change Work Info dialog box, select the work info record you want to change, update the required fields, and then click Save.

    Note

    When you return to the request, refresh the Work Info table to see all the modified records.

13. Click Save.