Understanding the nature of change and the information available against the change is important before proceeding with the design and implementation of change. It is essential to have a systematic approach to undertake the assessment of risk, impact, and resource requirements of the change, in order to obtain a valid Change approval. This is done in order to maintain a proper balance between the need for Change and the potential negative impact of the Change. The change must get evaluated based on feasibility, impact, urgency, risk, benefits and costs.

The Change Manager should obtain information on the change (from the Delivery team if required) and assess the same. The change information should include:

• Overall scope, technical feasibility and financial impact of change
• The impact the change the Client’s business and system infrastructure
• The impact on other services that run on the same infrastructure
• Configuration items (CIs) involved/impacted by the change
• Predicted performance of the change
• Functional and technical changes
• Impact on support and maintenance costs
• Overall risk assessment
• Efforts associated(estimates) to build and test the change
• Resources required to implement the change
• Current change schedule
• Impact on service availability, capacity, continuity, security
• Potential impact on the services, because of failed changes
• The effect of not implementing the change
• Benefit of the change
• Plan for the change (release and schedule)
• Proposed testing and remediation plan.

The Change Manager must evaluate if the nature of the change requires approvers in addition to the existing Change Advisory Board and assign them appropriately.