How much detail in the impelmentation plan

[ultrahai]

Hi All,

Just wondering how much detail is required in the implementation plan of Change Records.
There are discussion in my company that the implementation plan should be a step by step outline that anyone could pick up and follow and implement. Im under the belief that the plan should contain enough information that any authorised person (same skillsets) to make these sort of changes should be able to follow and implement with no issues.

Cheers

Will

[tomkin]

Implementation plan is where Change passes on to Release Management.

Implementation plan should be a high level description attached to the RFC if possible and then Release Management would have to take care of detailed implementation including Release Plan, Build Guide (if needed), Release Instructions (step by step), Back Out Plan and Remediatin Plan.

It can contain more detail if needed.

If RM is not involved then details needed would be Deployment Plan (install), Backout and Remediation.

Hope it helps

[ultrahai]

Here in the state where we are in Australia we generally refer to the deployment plan as the implementation plan.

We are not mature enough to have RM yet so this is incorporated into change management.

So based on your answer and lets say hypothetically we do have an RM how low level should the "release instructions" be?

Cheers

[tomkin]

Well it all depends on the skillset of audience but writing it step by step so that a technical entry level person can understand and follow it.

The main idea of the release instruction and Build guide is to build the system from scratch if everything goes down.

You can incorporate this as an attachment to the RFC record and then may be store it on a central repository which will then be change managed for future updates. And to add, it becomes a CI then.

BTW, are you affected by any floods mate ?

[UKVIKING]

Ultrahai

IT depends on the work that is being done, how complex and how many different teams are involved

For ex, a firewall change.
The network team should know how to login to the router, enable admin mode, edit the file, save and exit admin mode
So for a f/w chaneg, I would excpect and accept

login into router using admin privledges

However, if the organization is very A.R. (anal retentive), the imp plan may say

login into router using STD Router login process as noted in document 123 v2 dtd 1 jun 2011

The Change / Release manager want a synopsis / summary where they can be satisfied that the deployment manager knows who and how the work will be done

If the deployment manager does not know enough information to summarize that, we usually get a little A.R and ask for an itemized list by time frame and group

In addition, if the work requires coordination from different groups - system, network, application, etc - at different times, then the summary plan should higjhlight this and indicate areas where hand offs occur etc

This applies also when working ith 3rd parties

The CM / RM merely want to ensure that the people doing the work have a clue
_________________
John Hardesty
ITSM Manager's Certificate (Red Badge)

Change Management is POWER & CONTROL. /....evil laughter

[JAL]

I agree with what has been stated, in terms of it depends on the nature of the change.

For example - If we are talking about a standard low risk change then the implementation (in my organisation) would not be assessed by CM, however we would expect there to be a valid Imp plan which the techncial (or supplier) team can follow and is auditable.

For larger changes (i.e ones which CM manage) we have a set document which clearly states that:

"In the Imp Plan section of RFC record please include a full implementation plan of the work that has clear dates, timings and event descriptions from the scheduled to the end date, this must include any designated back out timings if applicable. If a detailed imp plan is omitted from the RFC then your RFC will be rejected. Even if there is a documented Implementation plan attached to the RFC, you must update the Imp plan field. "

So a more technical detailed plan can always be added to the RFC, however this is an aid, and is not considered as part of the assessment and approval of an RFC.