What is the difference between release management and change management in servicenow?

[Alphonsa Abraha]

Hi Team,

Can you please share any exact documents or links for the difference between release management and change management in ServiceNow?

Thanks & regards,

Alphonsa Abraham

[Community Alums]

Hi @Alphonsa Abraha ,

In very Simple Terms: Change Management is a process of implying the changes is an effective way (i.e less disruption and less cost).

whereas in Release Management related changes are grouped into a single release to reduce all the inconvenience and disruption it causes.

[Teja11]

Hi @Alphonsa Abraha ,

Change Management is the process of managing changes to an organization's IT infrastructure. This includes the planning, scheduling, and implementation of changes that may impact IT services or systems. The goal of Change Management is to ensure that changes are made in a controlled manner and do not negatively impact IT services or systems.

Release Management, on the other hand, is the process of managing the release of new or updated IT services or systems into production. This includes the planning, scheduling, and coordination of the release process, as well as testing and validation to ensure that the new or updated services or systems are ready for deployment.

In other words, Change Management focuses on managing the individual changes that are made to an organization's IT infrastructure, while Release Management focuses on managing the overall release of new or updated services or systems into production. While these two processes are related, they have different goals and processes and are managed separately in ServiceNow.

Regards,

Teja

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[Raphael Moore]

What an excellent reply Teja, I'm an IT policy author, and this is a superb summary and comparison of these 2  related topics.

[HiteshMehra]

I see many responses here; however, I am sorry to say some responses are incorrect or confusing or a bit bookish.

Let me clarify the difference between change management and release management.

Change Management is a process that authorizes any activity to be performed in the Live Environment whereas.....

Release Management is a process that helps in developing or modifying a USABLE product, service. It accomplishes this by delivering the various usable components or features that are distinct in nature with each other however align for the common goal or are the part of the same deliverable (product, service). These components go through various phases (planning, design, development, testing, deployment etc. These components are delivered distinctly because they have separate purpose or functionality and to streamline the various process, such as scope, approvals, user communication, testing tracking they are delivered separately in distinct steps.

Essentially, Release Management is derived from Agile methodology principles, focusing on iterative and incremental development to build a product, service, or result efficiently and effectively.

As already mentioned, in the process

1. Products or services are delivered in various increments or features, as per the agile principle so that each increment can be focused more on and follow the streamlining of some process and approvals
2.   Each increment or feature goes via various phases.

It can be also said that any features or increments can be clubbed together if they have a common goal or relate to the same deliverable.

Release Management is the governance part of Agile Lifecycle for developing, modifying a product or service, change management is also a governance part however from the perspective of releasing something in live environment.

In conclusion, release management focusses on delivering a product or a service whereas change management focuses on deploying or touching anything on the live environment. By this logic, change management can be an essential feature of Release Management.

Do you see a difference now? Hope you can understand, specifically the focus of both these practices. Both are distinct practices from each other, yet both of them supports each other rather than working in silos. That means if some service or product is being developed and deployed in the Live Environment, so wherever you will touch the live or prod environment, it must go via change management.