1

Change Management
ServiceNow User Guide
November 2015

Contact:

[email protected]

Version 2.0 | Novmeber, 2015

Document Change Control

VERSION

DATE

AUTHOR(S)

BRIEF DESCRIPTION

1.0

9/30/13

ITSM Team & Third

Initial Draft for Go-Live Deployment

2.0

11/20/15

Brian Leishman

Updated to account for incremental process

Sky

improvements

Table of Contents

INTRODUCTION .......................................................................................................................................................................... 5

1.1

How this manual is structured........................................................................................................................... 5

1.2

Who should use this manual ............................................................................................................................. 6

INITIATING CHANGE REQUESTS........................................................................................................................................... 7

2.1
3

ASSESSING CHANGE REQUESTS ......................................................................................................................................... 12

3.1
4

Creating a New Change Request Ticket ........................................................................................................... 7

Risk Assessment Button ..................................................................................................................................12

DOCUMENTING CHANGES ...................................................................................................................................................... 0

4.1

Change Category .............................................................................................................................................. 0

4.2

Impacted Services ............................................................................................................................................. 1

4.3

The Planning tab ............................................................................................................................................... 2

4.4

Related Incidents .............................................................................................................................................. 3

4.5

Incidents Caused by Change ............................................................................................................................. 3

4.6

Using the Work notes and Activity log ............................................................................................................. 3

Watch List ............................................................................................................................................................. 4

4.7 ................................................................................................................................................................................... 4
5

ASSIGNING CHANGES .............................................................................................................................................................. 5

SCHEDULING CHANGES .......................................................................................................................................................... 6

6.1

Checking for Conflicts ...................................................................................................................................... 6

6.2

Lead Times ....................................................................................................................................................... 7

6.3

Change Calendar............................................................................................................................................... 7

6.4

Business Events ................................................................................................................................................ 7

SUBMITTING CHANGES ........................................................................................................................................................... 9

7.1

Requesting approval for a Change .................................................................................................................... 9

7.2

Change Approval .............................................................................................................................................. 9

IMPLEMENTING CHANGES ..................................................................................................................................................... 0

8.1

Recording the Change Outcome ....................................................................................................................... 0

............................................................................................................................................................................. 0

8.2
9

CHANGE REVIEW....................................................................................................................................................................... 2

9.1
10

Verify CIs Task ............................................................................................................................................... 0

Post Implementation Review Tasks .................................................................................................................. 2

QUERYING & REPORTING ....................................................................................................................................................... 0

10.1

Viewing a Report ............................................................................................................................................. 0

11

10.2

Creating a Custom Report................................................................................................................................. 0

10.3

Scheduled Reports ............................................................................................................................................ 1

10.4

Exporting List Data........................................................................................................................................... 1

CHANGE TEMPLATES ............................................................................................................................................................... 2

11.1

Using Templates ............................................................................................................................................... 2

11.2

Creating a New Template ................................................................................................................................. 2

11.3

Adding to the Standard Change Library ........................................................................................................... 4

Introduction

Changes to this guide are summarized in the document change control at the front of the document,
and will highlight changes to the process and/or tool that may address new capabilities as a result of:

Tool upgrades, improvements and revisions

Process enhancements and changes

Related ITSM process implementation/integration

Questions, concerns and/or feedback about this user guide should be addressed to the IT Service
Management team at [email protected]

1.1

How this manual is structured

This manual follows the lifecycle of a change request from creation through completion in the
ServiceNow ITSM tool.

The table below highlights the purpose of each chapter.

Chapter

Purpose
INITIATING CHANGES

Describes how to record Normal (Low, Medium and High Risk), Standard,
Emergency and Major Change requests.

ASSESSING CHANGES

Describes the way various changes are assessed for risk based on scope,

DOCUMENTING CHANGES
ASSIGNING CHANGES
SCHEDULING CHANGES
SUBMIT CHANGES

impact and probability of success using the ServiceNow tool.

How to determine and document Services and Configuration Items (CIs)
potentially affected. Appropriate documentation of Implementation,
Communications, Testing, and Back out plans.
Describes how to identify the responsible support group and assignee.
This chapter reviews how Changes are scheduled and how to use the Change
Calendar.
How to submit the Change Request for approval as necessary.

IMPLEMENTING CHANGES

Describes the steps associated with implementing the Change Request,

CHANGE REVIEW

How to complete a Change Record and conduct a Post Implementation

QUERYING & REPORTING

Provides guidance on how to query and report on Changes and change

activity.

CHANGE TEMPLATES

This chapter can help staff create re-usable templates to make Change
handling more efficient and effective.

including Change Tasks.

Review (PIR) as required.

Figure 1 - Chapters and Purpose

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

1.2

Who should use this manual

This manual is intended for all participants in the HUIT Change Management process. Each chapter
covers major activities in the process, and most process participants may be involved in these activities
at any particular time.

Staff should also be familiar with the detailed Change Management Process Description and its

contents, which provides information about roles & responsibilities, process workflow, policies and
other important guidance.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Initiating Change Requests

The Change Requester completes the change request form, secures appropriate business approval, and
communicates status of the Change back to the business and other stakeholders.
2.1

Creating a New Change Request Ticket

Changes can be recorded in ServiceNow by going to Change > Create Change in the application

navigator or clicking New from any change record list.

Clicking the Create Change

icon in the application
i

Clicking the New button in a

Change record list

When you open a new Change Request, the Change Request form appears (see Figure 2). ServiceNow

shows you which fields are mandatory by placing a red asterisk next to the field label; these fields must
Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

have data in order to save the record. Gray asterisks indicate that ServiceNow has automatically
populated these required fields.

If you open a new Change in error, you may click the back arrow in the upper left corner of the change

form to go back to the Change record list without creating a new Change record.

Figure 2 --- Change Request form

2.1.1

Initiating Normal Change Requests

All Changes with a Change Type of Normal must be assessed for risk. You must enter mandatory data

(Short description and Description) and save the record with a Change Type of Normal before you can
assess the risk of the Change. The Normal Change Type is selected by default. (See Figure 3)

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Figure 3 --- Saving a Normal Change Request

Saving the Change record will refresh the form and add some new buttons at the top of the form; Risk

Assessment, Copy Change, Cancel, and Update and Return.

Figure 4 - Saved Normal Change Header Buttons

Risk Assessment
The Risk Assessment button opens an assessment questionnaire that allows calculation of the Risk for
Normal changes. See section 3 Assessing Change Requests for additional detail.

Copy Change
The Copy Change button will make a duplicate of the current Change Record, copying all fields into a
new Change record with a different Number.

Cancel
The Cancel button will cancel the change ticket. You will be prompted to confirm before the ticket is
permanently cancelled.

Save
The Save button will save all changes without leaving the change form.
Update and Return
The Update and Return button will save all changes and return you to the previous screen.
Assign to me
Assigns the ticket to yourself within your default group.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

2.1.2

Initiating Standard Change Requests

To create a pre-approved standard change, open a new Change Request and select a Change type of
Standard. You will notice that the Risk field has been replaced by Standard change (see Figure 5).

Figure 5 - Standard change field

Clicking on the magnifying glass will open a pop-up window listing the standard changes available to

your group from the Standard Change Library.

Figure 6 - Standard Change list pop-up window

Select the appropriate Standard Change from the list and the Change Request form will automatically
be populated based on the Standard Change selected.

NOTE: Standard Changes are pre-approved, so risk assessment has already been completed

(Low Risk). In addition, the Start date and End date fields are now mandatory at this time.

2.1.3

Initiating Emergency and Major Change Requests

Open a new Change Request and select a Change type of Emergency or Major. You will notice that the
Risk field disappears, as both these change types are High risk. If you enter the Summary and

Description fields and Save the record, the Request Approval button will appear at the top of the form.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

10

NOTE: Before you can Request Approval for a Normal, Emergency or Major Change, you must
enter the following mandatory fields; Category, Assignment group, Start date, End date,
Implementation plan, Backout plan, Test plan, and Communication plan.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

11

Assessing Change Requests

All Normal change requests are assessed for risk based on scope, impact and probability of success.

After the Short description and Description fields are completed and the Change Request is saved, the
Risk Assessment button will appear as noted earlier.

No Assessment is necessary for Standard, Emergency and Major Changes.

3.1

Risk Assessment Button

Clicking the Risk Assessment button will open the Risk Assessment pop-up window (see Figure 7). The

Change Requester must complete the Risk Assessment and click Submit in order to categorize the
Change Request as a LOW, MEDIUM or HIGH Risk change.

Figure 5 - Harvard Change Risk Assessment Pop-Up Window

When the assessment questions are completed and the form is submitted, the user is returned to the

Change Request and the Risk field is populated with Low, Medium or High Risk based on the Risk
Assessment. A new button is added to the top of the form called Request Approval.

Figure 6 - Change Request Header with 'Request Approval' button

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

12

Documenting Changes

Now that the type and risk of the change has been identified, additional mandatory information about

the Change Request must be provided.

4.1

Change Category

The Change Category drop-down provides the following options: Application, Data Center, Database,

Network, Server, Storage or Other.

If a Change Category of Server is selected, a new (mandatory) field appears called Configuration item.

Use either the type-ahead or list lookup (magnifying glass icon) functions to select the appropriate

server configuration item (CI) associated with the Change Request. When you save the record with an
associated CI, a related list tab called Affected CIs is populated at the bottom of the change form.

4.1.1

Selecting Multiple Configuration Items

If you have to enter multiple configuration items for a Change

Request, you must enter the first one as described above and save the
record. To add additional CIs, go to the Affected CIs tab and click
the Edit button.

Figure 7 --- Related list Edit button

An Edit Members form appears (see figure 10). Select or search for the configuration items you need

from the Collection list on the left, and click Add to include them in the Affected CIs List on the right.

When you have finished adding the configuration items you need, click Save and they will be added to
the Affected CIs related list on your Change Request.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Figure 8 - Edit Members form

4.2

Impacted Services

While affected configuration items can only be added to Server category changes, all changes allow the
selection of impacted services.

Identify the services impacted (or potentially impacted) by the Change Request by completing the
Service field.

Figure 9 - The Service field

You may use the type-ahead capability if you know the name of the impacted service, or you may use
the magnifying glass to open list lookup pop-up window. The service you select will be listed in the

Impacted Services tab at the bottom of the Change Request form once it has been saved.
4.2.1

Entering multiple impacted services

To enter more than one impacted service, go to the Impacted Services tab and select Edit.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Figure 10 - Impacted Services tab

The Edit Members form appears (see Figure 10 above). Select the impacted services you need from the
Collection list on the left and click Add to include them in the Impacted Services List on the right.

When you have identified all the impacted services, click Save. You will be returned to the Change
Request form and they will be added to the Impacted Services related list tab.
4.3

The Planning tab

All four fields on this tab are required in order to request approval.
4.3.1

Implementation plan

The implementation plan should contain:

4.3.2

Details of products, versions and configuration settings

Information about staff or teams who will perform work
Implementation steps and/or workflow

Backout plan

The backout plan should include:

Steps that will be taken to restore normal service if the change fails

Allowance time for rollback within the change window

The identification of a specific backout trigger (time, responsible party) that determines when
and how the backout plan will be initiated

4.3.3

Test plan

The test plan should include:

Pre-implementation testing results and details

Post-implementation plans to confirm successful implementation and normal service operation

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

4.3.4

Communications plan

The communications plan should use existing methods of communication and follow the current

guidelines at the time of the Change Request. The plan should account for both internal and external
communications needs.
4.4

Related Incidents

If this change is being requested in response to one or more Incidents (i.e. to resolve a Major Incident),

use the Related Incidents tab to identify those Incidents. Use the Edit button to open the Edit
Members form and select the related Incidents from the Collection list.

Figure 11 --- Related Incidents tab

4.5

Incidents Caused by Change

The Incidents Caused by Change tab allows you to either open a new Incident that was caused by the
change, or link the change to existing Incidents that were caused by the change. To open a new

Incident related to the change record, click the New button. To relate an existing Incident to the
change, click on the Edit button which will open an Edit Members form.

Figure 12 - Incidents Caused by Change tab

4.6

Using the Work notes and Activity log

On the Notes tab, the Work notes provide a journal for recording activity associated with Change
record progress. Simply type the notes in the field and Save to add the notes to the Activity log.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

4.7

Watch List

You may add people to the Watch List by clicking the lock icon and expanding the field as illustrated

below.

You can easily add yourself to the Watch List by using the Add Me button.

Adding users to a Changes Watch List allows those users to quickly access or track those tickets by

selecting either the Watched Changes or Watched Items options in the navigator pane.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Assigning Changes

Change Requests need to have the right implementation group and assignee identified. You may select
the implementation group (Assignment group) for a Change Request by entering the information in
the Assignment group field.

Use either the type-ahead feature and begin typing the name of the assignment group, or click the

magnifying glass to open a pop-up window that will show a list of assignment groups. Select the

assignment group you need to populate the field.

If you know who the assigned to individual will be, you may apply the same procedure as above to the

Assigned to field. If you have already populated the Assignment group field you will be given a list that is
specific to the assignment group you entered.

Also, if you know the name of the assigned to individual you may enter the Assigned to field first and
the Assignment group field will populate based on your selection.

NOTE: The Assignment group field is mandatory before you can request approval for a change. The

Assigned to field is mandatory before you can complete the change.

Once a change is assigned to an individual, it will be displayed in the My Assigned Changes list in that
users Change Overview page.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

6
6.1

Scheduling Changes
Checking for Conflicts

ServiceNow has a collision detector that provides the ability to detect

whether planned changes conflict with other changes or have other

scheduling issues. The Check Conflicts links is available in the Related

Links list below the Planning/Notes tabs as shown below. It can be run

manually but also is run automatically when the change is submitted for
approval.

Checking for conflicts will perform the following checks:

Against blackout windows and business events

Against changes already scheduled for the same service or

configuration item

Figure 13 --- Conflict Checker

If there are no conflicts, ServiceNow will display a message at the top of the form:

If there are conflicts, ServiceNow will display a message at the top of the form.

Figure 14 - Conflict message

The Change Record will now have a Conflicts related list tab at the bottom of the form.

Figure 15 - Conflicts related list tab

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

NOTE: Start and End dates AND a Configuration Item or a Service must be specified to check for

conflicts.

6.2

Lead Times

6.3

Change Calendar

In the Schedules dropdown of the Change application from the application navigator, click on the link
Change Calendar. A Change Calendar report appears.

Figure 16 - The Change Calendar

The Change Calendar is a report, and so has all the querying and reporting capabilities of any report,

including:

The ability to highlight items based on specific criteria such as Risk, Change Type, or
Approval

Filtering and ordering (sorting) Changes

Adding the calendar to your Home Page

More information about querying and reporting can be found in the section, Querying and Reporting.
6.4

Business Events

If you wish to see a list of business events, click on the Business Events link in the Schedule drop-down
of the Change application from the application navigator.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

A Change Business Events list appears (see Figure).

Figure 17 - Change Business Events

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

7
7.1

Submitting Changes
Requesting approval for a Change

When all mandatory fields are completed, you may request approval for your Change Request by
clicking the Request Approval button.

The Change Request form will provide you with a message at the top of the form, Approval for

CHG000000 requested. You will also see a message that the Change Request has not been approved and

should not be implemented yet.

The Approvers tab related list at the bottom of the form displays a list of the approvers for the Change

Request.

Figure 18 - The Approvers tab

Each approver will receive an email notification as well as an approval request that will appear in their
My Pending Approvals list.
7.1.1

Adding ad-hoc approvers

Prior to a change being approved, additional ad-hoc approvers can be added as necessary. Click the Edit
button to bring up the Edit Members window and select additional approvers from the Collection list to
be added to the Approvers list.
7.2

Change Approval

The Change Management Process Description provides details on the approval levels for different

change types. If you are an approver, the easiest way to approve a change is to go to your My Pending

Approvals list on your Change Overview page (look for Change Overview in the Change module of the
application navigator).

Figure 19 --- Application navigator

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Look for the list gauge My Pending Approvals. You can right-click an approval record and click the

option to Approve it, or you can left-click the record to open it up and review the details of the change
request prior to approval or rejection.

Figure 20 - Change Approval in the My Pending Approvals list/gauge

The same procedure may be followed from the Approvers tab of a change record.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

10

Implementing Changes

As changes are performed, the Change Implementer/Assignee should update the Work Notes as
appropriate, particularly if multiple groups and/or implementation tasks are involved.

If the change Category was Server, the Implementer/Assignee is also responsible for updating the
related server Configuration Items (CIs) in the CMDB.

Once the change effort is done, as soon as possible during the next available business hours the Change
Implementer/Assignee should update the Work start and Work end fields in the Notes tab, along with
the Change Outcome.

The Work Complete button can then be clicked to update the change record status. Depending on the
Change Outcome and whether or not any CIs or services were related to the change, additional tasks
may be generated by ServiceNow.

NOTE: The Assignee, Change Outcome, Work start, Work end and Work Notes fields are mandatory
before you can mark a change Work Complete.

8.1

Recording the Change Outcome

To record the Change Outcome, click to display the drop-down list and select one of the following:

Implemented Successful

Implemented Problems Encountered

Change Failed

If you select either Implemented Problems Encountered or Change Failed, a task will be created called
Perform PIR for change.

8.2

Verify CIs Task

For Server category changes, if the Change Outcome is updated to Implemented Successful, or

Implemented Problems Encountered, the task Verify CIs for change is created. The task is assigned to the

manager of the server administration team, who is responsible for validating the corresponding updates
to the configuration item (server). You can see who is assigned this task by going to the Change Tasks
tab (see Figure 25).

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Figure 21 - Change Tasks tab (Verify CIs)

The change record will remain open until all Tasks are completed.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

9
9.1

Change Review
Post Implementation Review Tasks

If this task is required per the Change Management policy, the Change record cannot be closed until

the Post Implementation Review task is completed. You can see who is assigned the PIR task by going
to the Change Tasks tab (see Figure).

Figure 22 - Change Tasks tab

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

10 Querying & Reporting

10.1

Viewing a Report

To see a list of available reports, go to the application navigator and expand the Reports application.
Click on View / Run.

A list of your reports is presented (My reports), along with any reports saved for your group (Group) and
reports available to everyone (Global).

Figure 23 - View / Run Reports

Display a report by clicking its name in the list. ServiceNow allows you to set a variety of variables,
filters and/or search criteria to report on data. For example, you can change the type of report (pie

chart, bar chart, etc.), which tables the report uses, filter or sort by different fields, perform calculations

(count, sum, average) and change the size of the chart. You can also display the data in a grid format by
checking the display grid option.
10.2

Creating a Custom Report

From the reports screen you can also create new reports and perform ad hoc queries on data in

ServiceNow. Click the Create a report button and a blank report is shown. In the Data field, select the

Change Request table as shown below.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

You may now add whatever ad hoc criteria you require to create your own report.
10.3

Scheduled Reports

If an administrator has scheduled reports for you, you can see a list of them by clicking the Scheduled
Reports menu in the Reports application.

10.4

Exporting List Data

Export a list of records by right-clicking on a list header bar and selecting the export type. Export
options include:

Excel
CSV

XML

PDF (Portrait)

PDF (Landscape)

PDF (Detailed Portrait): Exports the list and the associated form for each record.

PDF (Detailed Landscape): Exports the list and the associated form for each record.

Figure 24 - Exporting List Data

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

11 Change Templates
11.1

Using Templates

ServiceNow allows you to create templates (pre-defined Change Models) to make it easier to create a

Change Request.

To use a template, open a new Change Request and follow these steps:
1. Click on the drop-down next to the small green arrow
2. Choose Templates

3. Choose Apply Template

4. Select the template that you need to use

1) Click the drop-down
2) Select Templates
3) Select Apply Templates
4) Choose the required template

Figure 25 - Using Templates

11.2

Creating a New Template

Using the drop-down as explained above select Edit Templates instead of Apply Templates. A
Templates list form appears.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Figure 26 - Templates list form

Click an existing template if you want to edit, or click the New button to create a new template. A
blank Template form appears.

Figure 27 - New Template form

The template can be limited to you, your Group (by entering a Group name) or everyone (by clicking
the Global checkbox). The Active checkbox determines whether the Template is in use at this time;

unchecking the Active checkbox will hide it from the template list.

Figure 28 - Template form (entering fields)

The Template form allows you to identify which fields from the Change Request form may be pre-

filled by your template. Give the template a Name (change the default name). Change the Table field to
Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Change Request. Select the field from the choose field drop down and enter the pre-filled information

you desire in the corresponding field. If you make a mistake you can delete a field by clicking the x
next to the field entry. Add as many fields as you would like to have pre-filled in the template.
Click Save when all fields have been selected and completed.
11.3

Adding to the Standard Change Library

Open the Standard Change Library from the application navigator pane and click on the New button.

Figure 29 - The Standard Change Library

A blank Standard Change form appears. Complete the mandatory fields and click Save. A Request
Approval button will appear.

Figure 30 - Standard Change (Request Approval)

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0

Clicking this button will request approval of your Standard Change and it will appear in the Standard

Change Library with an approval status of Requested. When the Standard Change entry is approved by
the Change Advisory Board (CAB) it may be used to execute Standard Changes.

Harvard University Information Technology

User Guide - CHANGE

Versison 2.0