In ITSM as in life change is inevitable.   In order for us to continually deliver services that are meaningful and bring value to our customers, we must frequently update and upgrade not only the services we deliver but also the underlying infrastructure, technology and applications that are utilized and managed to deliver these services.   The ITIL definition of a change is “the addition, modification or removal of anything that could have an effect on the delivery of an IT service. The purpose of the change management process is to control the lifecycle of all changes, allowing us to make beneficial changes with minimal disruption to our current IT services.   The objective is to be able to respond to these changing requirements while safeguarding value and reducing rework.    Additionally ITSM must ensure that services continue to align to overall business strategy and that we have the processes and mechanisms in place to guarantee that all changes and th...

🔄 Note: Since the publication of this post, ITIL has evolved significantly. In ITIL 4 , Change Management is now referred to as Change Enablement , with an emphasis on enabling frequent, agile, and value-driven change. The types of change— Standard , Normal , and Emergency —still apply, but decision-making is more decentralized with the introduction of Change Authorities . While the concepts in this post remain useful, we recommend pairing it with updated ITIL 4 guidance for a complete view. Rusty asked: I was looking for terms used for categorizing the impact of a change. I remember in Version 2 of ITIL that changes were categorized as Major, Significant, Minor, and Standard. Is that no longer done? Or is the impact also defined as the priority—High, Medium, and Low? Rusty, I’m going to give you my answer in three parts. This information can also be found in Section 4.2 of your Service Transition Book.   In ITIL V3 changes are now categorized into three distinct ...