Change approval template overview
Change approval templates must be created before change requests (CR) and change orders (CO) can be processed. They determine the list of required approvers and responsible change coordinators. Each template defines the responsibility for both related change requests and change orders. This enables you to involve the same group of people for requests and related orders, but they can also be different.
In addition to the responsibility, the templates can also be used to define standard tasks to be accomplished as part of a change process. These template tasks help to standardize change execution but are not mandatory to use. If defined, the templates will drive the creation of change tasks in context of change requests and change orders – where the list of tasks still can be adjusted to still provide full flexibility. A change order and its originating change request usually are linked to the same template, but there is also the capability to change this.
When creating a new template, a unique name has to be provided. This name will be listed later on when selecting the right template for a change order or change request.
Management of change approval templates is only possible for people having role Change Approval Templates [R/W] assigned.
Defining responsibilities
A change approval template defines different responsibilities for change requests and change orders as described in the following table.
| Field | Description |
|---|---|
| CR Coordinator | The selected person is responsible for managing change requests (CR) based on this template. This person will involve further stakeholders and prepare for the change control board (CCB) review if needed. |
| CR Approvers | Team members listed here must approve the change request when it is at the CCB Review state. Only when all approvals are complete from all approvers can the workflow proceed to initiate a change order (CO). It is not required to pre-define the approvers for change requests; this field can be left blank. If this is the case, the CCB will be skipped if no additional approvers are selected on the CR. |
| CO Coordinator | The selected person is responsible for managing change orders based on this template. This person will involve further stakeholders and prepare for the CCB review. |
| CO Approvers | Team members listed here must approve the change order when it is at the CCB Review state. Only when all approvals are complete from all approvers can the workflow proceed to release the changed items. It is not required to pre-define the approvers for change orders; this field can be left blank. If this is the case, you must select additional approvers on the change order before it can proceed to the CCB Review stage. |
| CO Confirmations | Once the change order is approved, it may be required to request acknowledgement by further stakeholders. This field provides the capability to pre-define these team members which are notified right after the CCB review stage. If confirmations are requested, the change order will not complete before all confirmations are complete. |
Defining change tasks
If every change requires the same set of tasks to be completed and if change execution should be standardized, it is recommended to pre-define these tasks as part of the change approval template.
The Change Tasks Template tab enables you to define a list of activities to be accomplished as part of related change requests (CR) and change orders (CO) to save time when configuring these change processes. These tasks can be modified once copied to the respective change process. Specify the following information:
- ID - An alphanumeric value to identify the task.
- Depends On (Optional) - This column enables you to set up dependencies between tasks where one task cannot start until its dependent task is complete. This means you can determine the order in which tasks must be completed. This is why the ID is mandatory.
- Process - The type of change process this task is for (CRs or COs).
- Title - The name of the task to identify at a high level what the task is for.
- Description (Optional) - A longer description of what the task entails. This will be used by the task assignee to determine what they need to do.
- Priority (Optional) - The priority of the task. This can help the assignees prioritize their work.
- Assignee (Optional) - The person assigned to complete the task by default. It is not required as part of the template but will be required as part of the change process.
- Reviewer (Optional) - The person responsible for reviewing the completed efforts of the task. This means the task cannot be marked complete until the reviewer approves the task.
- Target Effort (Optional)- Enter a value in hours of the expected time it should take to complete the task.