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University of Florida

Change Management Overview

The IT environment is constantly changing in response to business need, growth, and changes in technology.  The University of Florida IT’s technology environment continues to be a complex interaction of process, people, and technology containing many interdependencies. The Change Management Process is designed to introduce a defined, documented, and disciplined approach to changes within the managed IT environment.   

Change Manager and Change Advisory Board (CAB)

The Change Manager is responsible for managing the Change Management Process and its role within the larger ITSM effort. Assisting the Change Manager in this role is the Change Advisory Board (CAB).

The IT Enterprise Change Advisory Board conducts weekly meetings to discuss the scope and impact potential of scheduled Changes, representation from each IT organizational unit is required. The Change Advisory Board is comprised of diverse expert change representatives from within the IT enterprise. CAB members support the assessment, prioritization, authorization and scheduling of University of Florida Information Technology organizational unit's changes.

  • Local CABs will need to meet prior to the weekly UFIT CAB Meeting and their approved changes must show that communication (documented in CR) has occurred with customers with a minimum of 7 days for mission critical services
  • Any unapproved changes by the UFIT CAB will be escalated to the CIO’s direct reports along with the reasons the change was declined by the CAB. Once denied, a new change request will be required if the change is going to be resubmitted
  • Groups will be provided a deadline to rectify minor issues that may have placed changes on hold – but for CAB unapproved changes, no behind the scenes negotiations will be allowed (new change requests will be required)
  • CAB meetings may be supplemented by additional personnel invited to discuss specific issues or Requests for Change. Especially, when new campus wide services are being deployed. Change Requests will be declined without the appropriate representation
  • UFIT CAB review/authorization must be obtained a minimum of seven calendar days prior to implementation of a normal change. The UFIT CAB meets every Monday at 3pm. As a result, Normal changes could then be implemented as early as Sunday (Monday is Day 1 and Sunday is Day 7). Otherwise, the change request would require expedited approval since it’s outside the normal approval process.
  • A final disposition code will be required within one business day of the scheduled end date for all changes. Past changes will be reviewed during the weekly CAB meeting and a report will be provided to organizational leadership reflecting changes lacking the required disposition
  • Changes that are not reviewed by the CAB and implemented will be considered undocumented (latent change) and reported to UFIT senior leadership
  • IT Alerts are required to be posted a minimum of 7 days prior to implementing changes, particularly, when service(s) will be disrupted longer than an hour or a majority of users will be impacted during the scheduled window

The IT Enterprise CAB meets every Monday at 3:00 PM.

The typical agenda includes topics beyond just the immediate change activity, and some areas are covered at quarterly intervals (e.g., process improvements, etc.). 

Summary of CAB Agenda Topics

  1. Review change activity since last meeting
    • Change Related Incidents
    • Failed Changes
    • Emergency Changes
    • Final Disposition on completed changes
  2. Review upcoming scheduled change activity (As part of the process improvement efforts, the CAB will also focus on reviewing future changes to ensure any needed remediation and/or additional communication can occur promptly)
  3. Change management performance review (2nd Monday)
  4. Open items review