Performing an impact analysis for a change request

Impact analysis helps you understand how a change request may affect related configuration items (CIs) and services. If any related input configuration items (CIs) for a change request are down, impaired, or degraded, run an impact analysis to identify all impacted CIs and services. After the analysis, you can relate some or all identified CIs and services back to the change request. This helps you understand the full scope of impact by listing all affected services.

You can run an impact analysis for a change request in two ways:

From the advanced impact analysis console.
It allows you to select input CIs and define their impact weight.
By using the initiate advanced impact analysis option.
It uses only input CIs with an association type other than Impacts and applies the default impact weight.

As a user with change master or change user permissions, you can rerun the previous impact analysis by using the same set of CIs. The ability to rerun an impact analysis without needing to reconfigure the input streamlines the execution process, promoting faster validation of updated impact results. It is particularly valuable after a service model update or when a prior analysis fails or is partially successful.

Before you begin

Make sure you have completed the following tasks:

Run a SmartGraph Sync Schedule from BMC Helix CMDB.
For more information, see Scheduling a DSM Sync to share impact attributes with BMC Helix NetOps in the BMC Helix CMDB online documentation portal.
Get BMC Helix Telco Extensions license.
For more information, see Setting-up-and-going-live.
As an administrator, configure the advanced impact analysis settings for change requests.
For more information, see Configuring Change Management.
As an administrator, configure the Impact Weight Mapping for the different impact levels.
For more information, see Configuring-the-impact-analysis-settings.
To run the impact analysis, get the Change Master or Change User permissions.
For more information, see Roles-and-permissions.
(To rerun impact analysis) Set the Change_Impact_Analyzer_Option parameter value to BOTH or Network. For more information, see Configuring change management.

To run an IT impact analysis for a change request by using the Initiate impact analysis option

For more information, see the "To perform impact analysis and relating CIs and services" section in the Monitoring the progress of a change request topic in theBMC Helix ITSM: Change Management online documentation portal.

To run a network impact analysis by using the Impact Analysis Console

When you run the network impact analysis by using the Impact Analysis Console, you can select the input CIs and their impact weight. Additionally, after the process is successfully completed, based on the results, you have the option to relate the impacted CIs back to a new or existing change request.

Click Console > Impact Analysis Console.
From the right corner, click + Impact analysis run.
On the Select input CIs tab, enter the Description, and from the list of CIs, select the required CIs.
Click Add selected.
Select the new impact weight (%) for the selected CIs and click Save.
Confirm the list of CIs and the impact weights.
You can also select the required CIs and click Remove or Change impact weight.Click Run analysis.
After the impact analysis process starts, the following message is displayed:Success. The impact analysis process has started successfully.
After the impact analysis process is completed, whether it is successfully, partially successful, or failed, an email is sent to the user who initiated the process. This email includes details about the outcome and relevant information about the impact analysis.

Example:
The impact analysis run initiated by <username> for the CRQ000000000001 has been completed.
Change details:
————————————————————————————————————
Change ID: CRQ000000000001
Priority: High
Status: In progress
Summary: Broken fiber optic cable
————————————————————————————————————
Impact analysis details:
————————————————————————————————————
Description: What-if run for <username>
CIs impacted: 113
CIs with LoS: 113
Services impacted: 1
Services with LoS: 1
————————————————————————————————————
From the Impact analysis window, for the impact analysis that you have performed, click the More icon and select one of the following options. Perform the corresponding steps added against the option:
- Create change—In the Create change request window, create a change request and click Save.
- Relate to change—In the Relate to change window, select the required change request, and click Relate.
After creating or relating the change request to the impact analysis you performed, open the change request and navigate to More > Logs to view detailed audit and notification logs.

To run network impact analysis for a change request by using the Advanced impact analysis console

From an existing change request, select More > Advanced impact analysis console.
Click + Impact analysis run.
Select one of the following options:
- Use associated CIs—You do not have the option of selecting CIs. Only the CIs associated with the change are considered with their default impact weight. After the impact analysis process starts, the following message is displayed:
  Success. The impact analysis has been started using the associated CIs and default impact weight. You can view details in the impact analysis console.
- Select input CIs—You have the option of selecting the required CIs and deciding the impact weight.
(For the Select input CIs option only) From the New impact analysis run window, select one of the following options:
- Select CIs from ticket—This ticket analysis option retrieves all the associated CIs related to the change.
- Select from all CIs—This what-if analysis option retrieves all the CIs from the BMC.ASSET dataset in BMC Helix CMDB.
  The description field is automatically populated based on the selection, which you can modify.
Select the required CIs and click Add selected.
Select the new impact weight (%) for the selected CIs and click Save.
Confirm the list of input CIs and the impact weights.
You can also select the required CIs and click Remove or Change impact weight.
Click Run analysis.
After the impact analysis process starts, the following message is displayed:
Success. The impact analysis process has started successfully.

After the impact analysis process is completed, whether it is successfully, partially successful, or failed, an email is sent to the user who initiated the process. This email includes details about the outcome and relevant information about the impact analysis.

Example:
The impact analysis run initiated by <username> for the CRQ000000000001 has been completed.
Change details:
————————————————————————————————————
Change ID: CRQ000000000001
Priority: High
Status: In progress
Summary: Broken fiber optic cable
————————————————————————————————————
Impact analysis details:
————————————————————————————————————
Description: What-if run for <username>
CIs impacted: 113
CIs with LoS: 113
Services impacted: 1
Services with LoS: 1
————————————————————————————————————

To run a network impact analysis for a change request quickly by using the Initiate advanced impact analysis option

Make sure that the change has at least one associated CI with the Associate type other than Impacts.

To run an impact analysis quickly without manually selecting any additional CIs, from an existing change request, select More > Initiate advanced impact analysis.
The impact analysis process starts and the following message is displayed:
The impact analysis has been started using the associated CIs and default impact weight. You can view details in the impact analysis console.

The process automatically selects the input CIs from the associated CIs with their default weights (100%), except the CIs with the Association Type as Impacts.

To view the progress of the impact analysis process for a change request

Run the impact analysis process.
For more information, see To run network impact analysis for a change request by using the Impact Analysis Console.
From the Advanced impact analysis console, click Successful from the Status column.

To relate impacted CIs back to the change request for an IT impact analysis

For more information about relating CIs and services for IT impact analysis, see the "To perform impact analysis and relating CIs and services" section in the Monitoring the progress of a change request topic in theBMC Helix ITSM: Change Management online documentation portal.

To relate impacted CIs back to the change request for a advanced impact analysisEdit

Run the impact analysis process by using the Advanced impact analysis console > Select input CIs > Select CIs from ticket option.
For more information, see To run network impact analysis for a change request by using the Impact Analysis Console.
From the change for which you performed the impact analysis process, select More > Advanced impact analysis console.
Click the required number from any of the following columns:
- CIs impacted
- CIs with LoS
- Services impacted
- Services with LoS
- CIs degraded
- Services degraded
From the Impacted CIs window, select the required CIs.

Information
Important
The tick mark under the Input CI column represents input CIs.
The link icon under the Already related column represents the CIs that are already associated with the change request.
Click Relate selected CIs.
Alternatively, you can also select all CIs and click Relate all CIs.
The following message is displayed:

The related CIs are displayed under the Configuration Item tab of the change with the Association type as Impacts.
If the number of related CIs is more than 100 (default value), an email notification with the following information is sent to the service desk agent who has related the CIs:
The relationship of the impacted CIs for CRQ000000000001 that is initiated by <username> has been completed.

CIs related successfully: 501
CIs already related: 0
CI relationship creation failed: 0
Change details:
————————————————————————————————————
Change ID: CRQ000000000001
Priority: High
Status: In progress
Summary: Broken fiber optic cable
————————————————————————————————————
Information
Important
An administrator can change the default value (100) for the number of CIs. For more information, see To configure the value for the number of CIs.

To rerun an impact analysis for a change request

Rerunning impact analysis helps to re-execute a completed, failed, or partially successful impact analysis using the same input configuration items (CIs).

Click Console > Impact Analysis Console.
In the impact analysis console, click the More icon next to the change request, then select Rerun impact analysis.

An impact analysis process has started successfully message is displayed.

You can track the progress and results of the rerun from the same change request.

To relate the impacted CIs back to the change request from a rerun impact analysis

Click Console > Impact Analysis Console.
In the impact analysis console, click the More icon next to the change request, then select Show related runs.
A list of all reruns associated with the original change request is displayed.
To view the lists of CIs, click the number shown in the following columns:
- CIs impacted
- CIs with LoS
- Services impacted
- Services with LoS
- CIs degraded
- Services degraded
Perform one of the following steps:
- To relate CIs, select specific CIs and click Relate Selected CIs.
- To relate all the CIs, click Relate All CIs.

A summary of successfully related CIs is displayed.

To summarize the network impact analysis results for a change request

Click Console > Impact Analysis Console.
In the impact analysis console, click the more icon next to the change request, then select Impact summarization using HelixGPT.

When the summary is generated, you can select the View summary button to review the summarized insights.

impact analysis summary

Known limitations

The impact analysis run for a change request cannot be opened from the activity log entries.