Change – Initial assessment checklist, anyone?

Cuff checklist by nasa_appel @ Flickr, Some Rights Reserved

Came up with this initial change assessment checklist for early identification of potential issues that must be taken care of.

The sparkle was a detected tendency that somehow inflicts change analysts to disregard planning and risk analysis. I found this in a customer that relies heavily on a subcontracted service provider for most of its service management activities.

As with all that has real value, it takes work and real thinking. A checklist can be helpful as a kickstarter.

People

• Does it need specific people in my organization?
• Does it need specific expertise not available in my organization?
• Is there a clear potential affected user list?
• What training for end users will be needed?
• What training for operational and administration level is required?
• Does it need multiple teams effort?

Technology

• Will it need specific resources (not people)?
• Does it include technology never used within our organization?
• Does it need additional testing, staging environments?
• Does it need specific licensing?

Process

• Is it dependent on other changes?
• What is the scope of the change? Does it affect only one component or several?
• Is it possible to fully test the change?
• Is there a work-around available should things go wrong? If so does it need specific preparation and resources?

Business

• Do we know what benefits it will bring?
• Does it have a clear business deadline?
• How critical are the affected services?
• What is the duration and scope of possible service disruption? Can the change be deployed within a scheduled maintenance window for services affected?
• Are there any special circumstances regarding this change?

I am working on testing this set (or a smaller one) on a customer.

Interested in how much meaningful analysis can really be performed early on a change life cycle and what the payoff will be.