The Service Management applications use the concept of functional roles for the following purposes:

• To identify the individuals who have specific IT Service Management roles within your organization
  For example, the Change Coordinator role, as represented in some service management frameworks, is equivalent to the Infrastructure Change Coordinator functional role in the application. The intent of functional roles that are defined in the applications is to closely align with the roles defined in the service management best practice methodologies.
• To extend the access granted by permissions groups to specific applications, which gives the user the required access to modify the changes and the associated tasks throughout its lifecycle
  For example, the Infrastructure Change Coordinator functional role allows the user to be assigned as the Change Coordinator of a change request, which gives the user the required access to edit the change record throughout its lifecycle. The user must also have either the Infrastructure Change Master, or the Infrastructure Change User permission.
  
  

Functional roles are different from permissions groups. You can assign functional roles only to the support staff, based on the support groups to which they belong. You can assign multiple functional roles to a support team member. For example, Allen is a member of the Operations support group and has also been identified as the Change Coordinator within that support group. Allen is given the functional role of the Infrastructure Change Coordinator for the Operations support group and because Allen approves change requests for the Operations support group, he is also given the functional role of the Infrastructure Change Approver.

Change Management application functional roles

The following table describes all of the Change Management application functional roles:

Change Management is a role-based application. What applications you can access, and how much information you can view or modify depends upon your role. As the Process Flow Status bar moves the change request through the stages, different roles perform different tasks. The Change Coordinator creates the change request at the Initiate stage and the Task Implementer works on the tasks that are associated with the change at the designated task phase (Review, Implementation, or Close Down).

The following figure displays the Process Flow Status bar in the stages of a change request.

The user with the Change Manager functional role can view the functionality in the application that other users cannot view.

Change requests track the progress of a change through its entire lifecycle, from the Initiation stage to the Closed stage. To manage a change request from start to finish, the main user roles listed in the following table are required. Although the responsibilities of these users can vary from organization to organization (and in some organizations, one person can fulfill several roles), they generally include the following roles and functions. In a small company, the same person can function as a change manager, approver, and task implementer.

Change Management IT Support user roles

For more information about permissions and roles, see Roles and permissions. For information about other important roles in Change Management, see Additional Change Management user roles.

The following figure illustrates the different Change Management support staff roles. It also shows where each role fits into the stages of the change request lifecycle.

The following request stages might not apply to all change requests. For example, you will see the Review & Authorize stage only if the application administrator has mapped an approver to the Business Approval phase.

Additional Change Management user roles

There are some additional Change Management user roles that also have important responsibilities. For more information about permissions and roles, see Roles and permissions.

Change implementer

Change implementers are support people or groups responsible for change requests that do not require tasks. You can designate a member of your support staff as a change implementer in the Change form.

Change implementers have their own assignment fields in the Change form when you use the Classic view. The changes assigned to the change implementer can be any type of routine activity that must be accomplished, for example:

• Reviewing the weekly error log report
• Rotating a backup tape
• Turning off the server room lights
• Replacing an office chair

For more information, see Adding-tasks-to-implement-a-change-request.

Change approvers and the CAB

According to ITIL recommendations, the Change Advisory Board (CAB) should approve all changes to the IT infrastructure. The CAB is a cross-functional group that is set up to evaluate change requests for their business need, priority, cost benefit, and other potential impacts to systems or processes. In Change Management, approvers are notified of change requests that require their review.

The change approver requires the following permissions and functional roles:

• Explicit change permission is not needed for access to change approval records. However, only people defined within the People form can be chosen as approvers. The minimum permissions in Change Management to approve change requests is Infrastructure Change Viewer. Users with this permission can view change requests in the Change form, but they must use Approval Central to approve them.
• The Change Approver functional role is required to create an Approval mapping record for the users. The Change Approver functional role is also required to approve or reject changes on behalf of the approver support group.
• Users with the Change Manager or Change Coordinator functional role can approve changes on behalf of their support group if they are defined as alternate approvers or as a global approver.

For information about the approver role and step-by-step procedures associated with approvers, see Approving-change-requests-in-the-Approval-stage.

Company executives

Company executives, such as CIOs, can use Change Management consoles to understand trends relating to change configuration management, and take appropriate action to balance the flow.

For example, CIOs can use the Change Management Dashboard to view important data points in an easy-to-read graphical display. They can select appropriate flashboards to appear on the Dashboard, with a time period that applies to all flashboards. CIOs can also use the Change Calendar to manage change and release activities. Executives can see a holistic picture of changes occurring in the enterprise, and associated business activities or events. Some of this information comes from the Change Management application and some through referencing objects in the BMC Helix CMDB.

For more information, see Scheduling-changes-by-using-the-Calendar.

Application administrator

The responsibilities of the application administrator, also known as the change administrator, might include installing and licensing the application, and configuring it to meet the organization's business needs. Some of the configuration tasks include:

• Creating and maintaining change request and task categorization
• Defining and adding members to support and general staff notification groups in the People form
• Assigning licenses
• Configuring approvals, risk, cost, templates, assignments, and change settings

For more information about configuring the Change Management application, see Onboarding-and-implementing.

Change Manager role

The Change Manager is a person or a group usually within an organization's support department. The Change Manager is responsible for the quality and integrity of the change management process. In large companies, the change manager's main responsibilities usually involve planning and oversight. In small companies, however, the Change Manager can function as the change coordinator who is performing the change. To be the Change Manager, a user must have the Infrastructure Change Manager functional role in Change Management.

The change manager requires the following permissions and functional roles:

• The Infrastructure Change User or Change Master application permission is required for access to change and task records.
• Infrastructure Change Manager functional role is required to be assigned as the change manager for individual changes.
• Membership in a company's support group is required to create change templates for that group.

To understand the overall change request process, as a change manager, see Change coordinator role. Typical Change Manager activities include handling assignments and monitoring support staff activity involved in implementing the change request. Even though Change Managers have the same permissions as support staff and can do the same procedures in Change Management, they usually do not perform support staff activities. The Change Manager is also typically responsible for addressing general, day-to-day issues from a personnel and customer satisfaction standpoint.

The following table describes the typical responsibilities of a Change Manager.

Change coordinator role

Change coordinators are support staff members with specialized abilities who handle the details of the change request. Change coordinators frequently exercise lead responsibilities based on factors such as location, skill set, troubleshooting skills, difficulty of the change request, and company (if you are a service provider). In large companies, the change manager would be responsible for the overall change such as scheduling, but the change coordinator would perform the day-to-day management of the change request process, for example, building and reviewing change plans, managing the change implementer, making sure that the change proceeds in a timely manner, and so on.

The responsibilities of a change coordinator include the following tasks:

• Accessing requests for change
• Gathering appropriate information based on the type of change being investigated
• Associating related CIs, incidents, and services to the change request
• Providing status updates to requesters
• Monitoring the progress of the change request
• Reviewing change plans and schedules. Planning activities include scheduling the change request, assessing risk and impact, creating plans, defining and sequencing the tasks needed to accomplish the change request, and scheduling people and resources for each task.
• Reviewing all completed tasks. In the Implement stage, at least one task related to the change request is in progress.
• Conducting post implementation reviews to validate the results of the change request
• Determining requester satisfaction with change request