Which Should be Implemented First? CHANGE MANAGEMENT OR CONFIGURATION MANAGEMENT

This question is probably easier to answer than the other commonly asked question: “Which ITSM process should be implemented first”…. but that may be a good topic for another later post.

Back to the question of which process should be implemented first – Change or Configuration Management? Sounds like a “Chicken or the Egg” question.
The idealists will say that both processes should be planned and implemented concurrently. Both are “control” processes and are closely linked as describe below:
· Configuration Management provides information about the relationships of Configuration Items (CI) through the Configuration Management Database (CMDB) and therefore, provide Change Management with an understanding of the impact of changes to the CI.
· Request for Change (RFC) and records of changes are supposed to be stored in the CMDB (depending on the scope of the CMDB). This enables tracking of progress of changes.
· Configuration Management is prompted to update CMDB by Change Management. CMDB should only be updated if there is a corresponding approved and completed Change. In other words, Change Management helps keeps CMDB up to date.

Some may say that Configuration Management process should come first or even be the first ITIL process to be implemented since the Configuration Management process underpins all other ITIL processes.

The fact is that in many of the ITSM assessments that I have done for corporate clients, I found that many companies have implemented some form of Change Management process, without a formal Configuration Management process. In those companies that have implemented both processes, the maturity of their Change Management process is far more than their Configuration Management process.

How is this possible? Can a Change Management process be successful without an underpinning Configuration Management process?

With a Configuration Management Process and a good CMDB, Change Management is able to conduct more effective impact assessment and to implement changes in a more controlled manner, resulting in a more stable environment.

However, good impact assessment can still be performed even without a Configuration Management process or CMDB. The knowledge of the CI relationships, state of the CI, history and other relevant information for Change impact assessment are in the heads of the persons responsible for the state of the CI (aka CI Owners). The knowledge could also be documented somewhere by the CI Owners (“CMDB” in its raw form). A good impact assessment can still be done if the Change Manager is able to consult with or bring the right persons (i.e. CI Owners) to the Change Advisory Board.

In any case, even with a functioning CMDB, the Change Manager should still consult and invite the CI Owners to help assess changes, especially complex changes as these guys will be able to provide much more information, knowledge and wisdom than a mere CMDB.

The recording of RFC and change related information to support the Change Management process is an activity performed within the Change Management process. Storage of RFCs and records of changes is possible without a formal Configuration Management process as long as records are properly kept and maintain using a document management tool or filing system.

In summary, it would be ideal to be able to plan and implement both processes concurrently. But if you are constrained by time, money or project resources, you may choose to postpone the Configuration Management process implementation and focus on getting Change Management process up and running first. Getting the benefits of an improved Change Management process earlier (Achieving Quick Wins) is an important consideration when you are on the ITSM journey. Also, with the Change Management process introduced, there is a better understanding of how to scope and plan the Configuration Management implementation to link into the Change Management later on.

V3 traps for the ITIL V2 folks

Question: When is the BEST time for a Known Error record to be created?
Answers (choose one):
A. When a temporary solution or workaround has been found, even if the cause has yet to be diagnosed
B. Upon the Problem resolution, so a permanent historical record of all actions is retained in case of recurrence.
C. As soon as it becomes obvious that a quick resolution of the Problem will not be found
D. It is inadvisable to set a specific point when a Known Error record must be raised. It should be done as soon as it becomes useful to do so

Most of you would have chosen Answer A.

In fact, I did too when this question was first presented to me since I am an ITIL V2 practitioner for many years and ITIL V3 is still quite new to me.

But …..the answer is not A if you are sitting for a ITIL V3 examination.

In ITIL V2 Service Support book, under the section Error Identification and Recording, “A Known Error status is assigned when the root cause of a Problem is found and a Work-around has been identified”. In other words, A Known Error record is created (could be based on a previous Problem record) when a workaround has been found. So the answer A would be correct if based on ITIL V2.

In ITIL V3, under the section Raising a Known Error record, it is stated that “As soon as the diagnosis is complete, and particularly where a workaround has been found (even though it may not yet be a permanent resolution), a Known Error Record must be raised and placed in the Known Error Database – so that if further incidents or problems arise, they can be identified and the service restored more quickly.
However, in some cases it may be advantageous to raise a Known Error Record even earlier in the overall process – just for information purposes, for example – even though the diagnosis may not be complete or a workaround found, so it is inadvisable to set a concrete procedural point exactly when a Known Error Record must be raised. It should be done as soon as it becomes useful to do so!” In other words, a Known Error record could be raised before the root cause or workaround has been found. For example, it may be good for Service Desk staff to know that a newly reported incident that is recurring had been investigated by a problem management team and he can then inform the user accordingly.

So the answer is D if the question based on ITIL V3. A is still correct but not quite and the question was asking for the BEST answer.

Gotcha!

One more gotcha for those who are exposed to ITIL V2. This is more straightforward.

Question: The group that authorized changes that must be installed faster than the normal process is called the?
Answers (choose one):
A. Urgent Change Board (UCB)
B. CAB Emergency Committee (CAB/EC)
C. Urgent Change Authority (UCA)
D. Emergency CAB (ECAB)

In ITIL V2, the answer would have been B.
In ITIL V3, D is the correct answer.

Also note in the ITIL V2, the Forward Schedule of Change (FSC) is a document that contains all approved changes and their implementation dates. The Projected Service Availability (PSA) is a document used by Change Management to outline effects of Changes on the levels of availability defined in the SLAs.

In ITIL V3, the Change Schedule is the new name for FSC.
The Projected Service Outage (PSO) is a document that identifies the effect of planned changes, maintenance activities and test plans on the agreed service levels.

ITIL V3 Intermediate Certification Examination Taking Tips

The ITIL V3 Intermediate courses are being launched in most countries and I have the pleasure (or pressure) of sitting for the OS&A and RC&V exams recently, both on the same day. The RC&V in the morning and the OS&A in the afternoon.

The exams consists of Eight (8) multiple choice, scenario-based questions and is gradient scored.

Gradient scored means each question will have 4 possible answer options, one of which is worth 5 marks (best answer), one which is worth 3 marks (second best), one which is worth 1 mark (not so good), and one which is a distracter and achieves no marks.

To pass, you need to score at least 28 marks, i.e you cannot afford to lose more than 12 marks. This means you need to choose the best answer for at least 4 questions to have a good chance to pass.

Here are my personal experiences and tips.

Tip #1: Time is of the essence

Having to answer 8 questions in 90 mins, you have only about 11 mins per question. There is a lot to read - 1 page scenerio and 4 possible answers (1 paragraph per answer). Don't spend more than 11 mins per question, especially the first one. If you feel you are struggling with a particular question, SKIP it first and come back to it later if you have time at the end. You can still pass the exam if you have answered the remaining 7 questions well.

Tip #2: Eliminate the obvious and focus your time on the best 2 answers

There will be a distractor answer and it is often easy to pick this out at first glance. I also used a process of elimination to further narrow down the answers to the final 2 or final one.

Tip #3: Differentiating between the best and second best answers may require you to read the Question again and again. 2 marks may be all it takes to make or break. Spend time to analyse the Q&A after you have narrowed your answers to the final 2. Underline Keywords and "score" the answer using a series of + and -, like you are grading your own work. Often, you will find the best answer is the one with the all pluses and no minuses...which leads me to the next Tip.

Tip #4: Generic vs Specific Answers - Read the question

Sometimes, the generic answer containing all the right ITIL statements may seems like the best answer BUT if the question asked for "your recommendation", "what specific actions would you take", then the Generic answer may not be the best answer. You should look for Answers that is more specificly related to the case study.

Tip#5: Study the materials and make full use of the classroom session to understand ITIL concepts and how it is applied. As this is case study, scenerio-based exam, just pure memory work will not be enough.

Is 100% CPU Util a bad thing?

I was conducting a ITIL V2 Manager course earlier this month where there is a case study on capacity management. In this case study, the students were given a scenario where they were to analyse system performance data (CPU Util over a period of 1 week for a Unix server) and identify potential issues and propose some further actions.

All the students noted the CPU utilisation was above the recommended CPU threshold (which was given in case study) from 10 am to 12 noon where mostly online work is done and also 2 am to 4 am where nightly batch jobs were running.

Guess what? All students indicated that immediate solutions are needed for both situations. These include tuning, demand management, and finally CPU upgrade.

Actually, batch jobs using CPU at 100% may not be a bad thing. Batch jobs are mostly I/O bound. If they are not waiting for data to be fetch/posted to disk or tape, they should be using as much CPU time as possible to complete the processing. Hence using CPU at 100% is not a bad thing for a batch-oriented processing. It would be an issue if the jobs cannot be completed on time (e.g. by daybreak), despite having used close to 100% CPU resources.

As any performance consultant would say...it depends.

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