Control-M

In today’s world and our day-to-day life, change is the only constant thing that we know of. Working in the IT/Telecom industry for past 11 years, I have noticed that we carry out thousands of changes related to products, services, infrastructure, etc., but the question that remains unanswered is – “How diligently is the change management process followed?”We say that change is the only constant thing in this world, but do we ever ask ourselves if we really need to go through that change? Some changes leave positive impact and some, negative.Thinking about impacts and changes, a thought ran through my mind – is it possible to know the impact of a change before that change is executed? The answer is ‘YES’. But then, the next logical question is – ‘HOW?’My experience with several IT organizations has taught me lessons on the need to have a water-tight process. Equally important is the need to have an organizational framework for executing the process. Poor execution can undermine the effectiveness of the process. Following a process diligently leaves a major impact throughout the organization, as it demonstrates execution capabilities.Let’s consider an example of infrastructure services. A customer wants the existing bandwidth of 100 Mbps to be upgraded to 500 Mbps, as the existing bandwidth is insufficient for the business. The customer raises a request with the infrastructure provider and provides justification for the change.What is the first thing that the infrastructure provider should do here? The infrastructure provider first needs to analyse the change request with the internal teams, such as Sales, Operations, Management, and Support. Additionally, they also need to understand the impact of this change, if any, on other services provided to the customer. Let us assume that they are offering voice services on the same infrastructure. Upgrading the bandwidth may have unintended adverse effect on that voice service.

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