Create a change request

Release version: Brazil
Updated January 30, 2025
11 minutes to read

Create a change request to implement a controlled process for modifying approved and supported configuration items (CIs).

Before you begin

Role required: itil, admin, or sn_change_write

About this task

A change request records detailed information about the change. This includes the reason for the change, the priority, the risk, the type of change, and the change category.

If you use conflict detection, the planned start and end dates and the configuration item (CI) are required.

Note:
Editing the field depends on the current state of the change request and the configured workflows.
  • New: The fields are editable.
  • Authorized: The fields are set to read only to prevent unintended changes after approval.
  • Scheduled: The notes and status fields are editable, and the description field is read-only.
  • Implement and Review: The description and planning fields are set to read-only. The activity and closure information fields are editable.
To modify fields after saving, verify that the change request is still in an editable state. If it has progressed to Authorized or a later state, you must either request a state change back to New, or create a change request with the corrected information.

Procedure

  1. Create the change request with one of these options.
    OptionDescription
    From the Change application You can create all three types of change from the Change application. This is the main entry point for creating a change request.
    1. Navigate to All > Change > Create New.
    2. Select Normal, Emergency, or Standard changes.

    If you are an upgrade customer and willing to use change models, you must enable the change model properties. For information on change models and its properties, see Change model management.

    When you enable the change model properties, you see the following tabs when you navigate to All > Change > Create New.

    • Models: Shows all the available models available to select.
    • Preapproved: List of preapproved models to select.
    • Pinned: Models that you have pinned from the Models and Preapproved tabs.
    • All: All models are available to select.
    From an incident or a problem As a user with the sn_change_write role, you can create a standard, normal, or an emergency change from an incident or a problem.
    1. Open the incident or problem.
    2. Right-click the form header and select Create Normal Change, Create Standard Change, or Create Emergency Change.
    From an existing change record If the administrator enabled the change request copy option, you can create a new change by copying an existing change record.
    1. Open the change record that you want to copy.
    2. Select Copy Change.
    Note:
    If the create task workflow sets the create_from field in the [change_task] table to workflow, manually created tasks from the existing change record are copied.
  2. On the form, fill in the fields.
    Table 1. Change Request form
    Field Definition
    Number Change request number.
    Requested by User who requested the change. This field is available in the Change Requests list view, so that you can see who requested a particular change.
    Category Category of the change, for example, Hardware, Network, Software.
    Service Business service that you want to make available for the change request.
    Note:
    If you select a business service as the configuration item and that business service is also listed as the configuration item in any other active task, the active tasks icon (Active tasks icon.) appears. Click this icon to view the list of all the other active tasks that are affecting the business service. You can view the BSM map (dependency view) of the selected business service by clicking the dependency icon (Dependency icon.).
    Service Offerings Consists of one or more service commitments that uniquely define the level of service in terms of availability, scope, pricing, and packaging options. You can choose to receive different levels of performance and features for a given service through service offerings. You must select a service to filter the available service offerings.
    Configuration item
    Select Add to add a CI for the change. You can add a CI for a change in New state only.
    Important:
    You can set or change the primary configuration item (CI) only while the change request is in the New state. After the change moves past New, manage additional CIs through the Affected CIs related list. For details, see Associate multiple CIs with a change.
    CI that the change applies to. Change requests can be associated with any type of CI, including service offerings, providing detailed access to SLA and availability requirements.

    When you select a dynamic CI group, all the configuration items related to the selected dynamic group will be populated in the Affected CIs related list. In the Affected CIs related list, you can also manually add and delete the dynamic CI groups. When you add a dynamic CI group, all the related CIs are added, and when you remove a dynamic CI group, the related CIs are removed.

    After selecting a CI, you can select the health dashboard icon (Health dashboard icon.) to view the CI health details.

    Note:
    By default, Service Offering is filtered out and CIs with Principal Class are selected. The Principal Class filter functionality is applicable to new customers starting from the Paris release.

    See Refresh impacted services properties
    Priority Priority is based on impact and urgency, and it identifies how quickly the service desk should address the task.
    Risk Risk level for the change.

    The Risk value is -- None -- until you define it as High, Moderate, or Low. You can also use Risk Calculation and Risk Assessment to drive the risk value of the change.
    Impact Impact is a measure of the effect of an incident, problem, or change on business processes.
    Model Change model being used for the change request.

    For information about Change models, see Change model management.
    Type The type of change request. The field displays Model if the Change model has not been configured with a defined Type. This field is read-only.

    For information about creating Change models, see Create a Change model.
    State State of the change request. The default state is New.
    Conflict status Status that indicates whether a scheduling conflict exists for this change, or whether conflict detection has not run. A conflict status (Conflict, No Conflict, Not Run) means that the change overlaps a blackout window, an active change, or falls outside a maintenance window. To resolve a conflict, review the conflicts listed in the Conflict section and reschedule the change. For more information, see Conflict detection.
    Conflict last run Date and the time when the conflict was last run.
    Assignment group Group who will work on the change request.
    The business rule Populate Assignment Group based on CI/SO populates the Assignment group field available for the CI or the service offering consecutively.
    Note:
    The business rule is triggered when a change request is created or updated and when the Assignment group and the Assigned to fields are empty.
    If you want to override the default value, you need to create new properties and provide the field in the property value that must be used to populate the Assignment group field. Create the properties in the following order of preference:
    • com.snc.change_request.ci_assignment_group.field_name: Identifies which CI field populates the Assignment group field.
    • com.snc.change_request.service_offering_assignment_group.field_name: Identifies which service offering field populates the Assignment group field.
    Assigned to User that the change is assigned to. If an assignment rule applies, the change is automatically assigned to the appropriate user or group.
    Short description Summary of the change.
    Description Detailed description of the change.
    Risk and compliance category Dynamic category that groups the risk and compliance attributes relevant to the change.

    Categories are hierarchical. A category can have a parent category, so that a specific category nests under a broader one. For example, a category for changes that affect financial or payment systems can nest under a broader compliance category.

    The base system includes example categories, such as Risk and Compliance, Financial Risk and Compliance, and SaaS/Cloud Security Compliance. You can deactivate these categories or add your own to match your organization's compliance requirements

    Note:
    • For more information about dynamic categories, see Dynamic Schema.
    • To configure the Risk and compliance category, see Configure the compliance dynamic schema.
    Risk and compliance attributes Risk and compliance details for the change, entered as a JSON string of attribute name and value pairs. Use this field to record information such as whether an audit trail is required, whether the change requires downtime, the estimated number of impacted users, and the expected rollback time.

    An attribute that is defined under the change_request/risk_and_compliance_attributes dynamic namespace adheres to the type set on the dynamic attribute, such as True/False, Integer, Decimal, or String.

    The attributes provided in the base system are examples. You can deactivate them or define the attributes that match the compliance requirements of your organization.

    Note:
    • You can also read and update attribute values from scripts, including risk condition scripts and business rules. Use the dynamic schema scripting API to conditionally respond to attribute values or trigger downstream actions. For information about the scripting API, dynamic attributes, transient attributes, and configuration options, see Dynamic Schema.
    • To configure the Risk and compliance attributes, see Configure the compliance dynamic schema.
  3. To plan the change, select the Planning tab and enter information.
    This information is critical for change approvers.
  4. Select the Schedule tab.
    1. Enter as much information about the scheduled dates as you have.
      Some of the fields are available for normal or emergency changes only because standard changes are preapproved.
      Note:
      For normal or emergency changes, enter the planned start and end dates and actual start and end dates manually. Populate the actual start and end date fields during the Implement state as the assignee begins and completes the work.
    2. If the form is configured to show the CAB required check box, select it to indicate that CAB approval is required before implementation.
      The CAB date field in the change request is automatically updated with the date in the Meeting start time field of the CAB meeting form.
    3. If there is an unplanned CI activity, select the Unauthorized check box to determine if the change is an unauthorized change.

      For more information, see Unauthorized change request.

      Note:
      This check box is available only for emergency change requests.
    4. If the form is configured to show the CAB delegate field, select the user who attends the CAB meeting to describe the change.
    5. In the CAB recommendation field, enter notes or recommendations related for the CAB meeting.
  5. Select the Conflicts tab.
  6. To detect change conflicts, select Check conflicts.
  7. Right-click the form header and select Save.
  8. Review entries in the related lists and modify the entries as appropriate.
    Table 2. Default Change Request related lists
    Field Description
    Affected CIs List of CIs (from the CMDB) affected by the change. You can associate multiple affected CIs with a change, including after the change has moved past the New state, when the primary configuration item can no longer be edited directly. For details, see Associate multiple CIs with a change and Add affected CIs using a BSM map.
    Impacted services/CIs List of CIs, such as business services or from other CI classes, that are impacted by the affected CI in the change. You can associate multiple impacted CIs with a change.
    Service Offerings List of service offerings affected by the change. You can associate multiple service offerings with a change. This related list is available only when a service offering is selected.

    If there are service offerings associated to the Impacted Services, then refresh the Impacted services/CIs related list to view the offerings.

    Note:
    If you have customized the default view of your form or related list before the Paris release, you cannot see the field or the related list by default. Modify the form to add them manually.
    Approvers This list is automatically generated from the workflow and any applicable change approval policies. You can also view the Group of approvers assigned to the task. To add additional approvers, define or update a change approval policy. For details, see Change approval policies and Create approval definitions.
    Change Tasks The list of tasks can be created from a workflow. The default workflow generates tasks in the Implementation state. You can also create a new change task. The Planned start date and Planned end date in task type Implementation must fall within the planned start and end dates specified in the change request.
    Problems If the change was generated from a problem, this list is generated automatically.
    Incidents Fixed by Change List of incidents that require the change for resolution.
    Incidents Caused by Change List of incidents caused by the implementation of the change.
    CAB Agenda Items List of agenda items and details of respective items. For example, the meeting start and end time, allocated time for the meeting, state of the meeting, and the decision made for that agenda item.
    Note:
    The CAB Agenda Items related list is not shown on the form when the list is empty. This feature is available only for Jakarta instances.
    Note:

    To view the complete change request history, navigate to the Notes. The log displays all modifications and state transitions, including edited fields and their edit dates.

  9. When the change request is ready to move to the next state, select Request Approval.
    The state is moved forward based on the type of change request:
    • Assess state: Group level approval for a normal change request. Approval records are automatically generated based on the Assignment group. You can conduct peer and technical reviews of the proposed change.
    • Authorize state: An emergency change request.
    • Scheduled state: Pre-approved standard changes.
    Note:
    To mail the change record, select the more options icon (More options icon.) in the content frame and select Email. Both the user who requested the change and the user who is assigned to the change are automatically populated in the list of recipients.

    To view the calendar, select View Calendar in the title bar of the Change Request form.

What to do next

Process a change request