Automating standard Change Management tasks

Automated execution of standard change requests can be implemented in a systematic manner, thereby improving efficiency and quality of work. This automation allows the team to focus on other tasks like priority change requests, or collaborate with experts on complex requests.

Scenario

The Change Management Team receives a change request (CR) for a task. The team reviews the CR and when it is approved, the Change Engineer submits a request in BMC Helix Digital Workplace with all necessary details.

For the automated tasks to run without any manual intervention, BMC Helix Digital Workplace is already integrated with Jenkins, which is an open source automation server. After the Change engineer submits the request in BMC Helix Digital Workplace, automation workflow is initiated on the scheduled start date of the change request. The workflow sends a notification about the start of the change task, and then initiates the pipeline run. After the pipeline run is completed successfully, the workflow sends a completion email with the validation screenshot. If the pipeline is not complete or fails, the workflow sends a failure email notification, and also creates a task in Jira for further debugging.

Benefits

Automating standard change management tasks provides the following benefits:

Reduces the scope of manual errors
Saves time and effort required for carrying out standard tasks
Enables the team to work on critical requests by automatically running standard tasks

Workflow

The following graphic shows change management automation process workflow:

Change Automation Tasks.png

The following table lists some standard change management tasks that can be automated using BMC applications and third-party tools:

Task	Description	How the automation works	Benefits
Migrating field customizations or importing object definitions	Migrate field customizations and import object definitions without deleting existing data or breaking links to workflow	The automated workflow performs the following steps: Performs a pre health check of the environment Takes a backup of the workflow objects or customizations Migrates or imports workflow objects or field customizations Reimports the backup for rollback Performs a post migration health check of the environment	Migration done automatically without breaking links to workflow or deleting existing data Change window reduced by 50-75% Object definitions and customizations migrated without manual errors
Modifying application branding	Change application branding in accordance with your company's branding policies	The automated workflow performs the following steps: Performs a pre health check of the environment Checks the existing branding Logs in to the self service tool for server operations and takes backup of the data Deletes existing branding Runs the DBFileSync utility to upload new branding Sets a blackout window for the monitoring tools to ignore alerts during the exercise Performs rolling restart Performs a post automation health check Revokes the blackout window for the monitoring tools	Change window reduced by 50-75% Branding changes are uploaded without errors
Add or modify Centralized configuration parameters	Add configuration settings or modify configuration data for existing parameters	The automated workflow performs the following steps: Performs a pre health check of the environment Creates a temporary automation user for adding or updating the centralized configuration parameters Logs in as the automation user and records old parameter value Creates the parameter If it does not exist Updates the centralized configuration parameter value Performs a post automation health check	Change window reduced by 50-75% Configuration settings added or updated without errors

Automating standard Change Management tasks

Scenario

Benefits

Workflow

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