Change types

  • Release version: Australia
  • Updated January 30, 2025
  • 2 minutes to read
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    Summary of Change types

    ServiceNow Change Management supports three ITIL-defined service change types: standard, emergency, and normal. Each change type triggers a specific workflow and process to ensure appropriate risk management, approval, and implementation aligned with the urgency and nature of the change.

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    Change Types

    • Standard Change:

      These are pre-authorized, low-risk, routine changes with established procedures and a proven record of success. They follow a streamlined process without requiring group, peer, or CAB approvals. Standard changes can be predefined in a catalog for efficient access and controlled authorization by the Change Management team.

    • Emergency Change:

      Implemented immediately to resolve critical incidents or apply urgent fixes like security patches. Emergency changes bypass group and peer reviews and proceed directly to CAB approval due to their high priority. They address situations where service impact is already occurring or imminent. These changes do not follow the full normal change lifecycle and may generate unauthorized change requests if unplanned CI changes occur.

    • Normal Change:

      All other service changes that do not fit the standard or emergency categories. Normal changes require detailed assessments, multiple approval levels including peer, technical, change management, and CAB authorization. They aim to minimize service disruption and are typically scheduled outside blackout windows or during maintenance windows.

    Practical Benefits for ServiceNow Customers

    • Enables efficient management of different change scenarios by applying the correct process and approvals.
    • Streamlines low-risk changes through standard change templates, reducing administrative overhead.
    • Prioritizes urgent fixes with emergency changes while maintaining oversight through CAB approval.
    • Ensures thorough review and risk mitigation for all other changes via the normal change process.

    Change Management supports the three types of service changes ITIL describes — standard, emergency, and normal. The change type determines which state model is invoked and the change process that must be followed.

    Standard change

    A standard change is a pre-authorized change that is low risk, relatively common and follows a specified procedure or work instruction.

    A standard change is one that is frequently implemented, has repeatable implementation steps, and has a proven history of success. As Standard changes are pre-approved, they follow a stream lined process in which group level or peer approval and CAB authorization steps are not required.

    Approved standard change requests can be predefined in a catalog of templates to make accessing and requesting a standard change more efficient. This ability also enables the Change Management team to control the changes that are authorized as standard.

    Emergency change

    A change that must be implemented as soon as possible, for example to resolve a major incident or implement a security patch. This change is of such a high priority that it bypasses group and peer review and approval and goes straight to the Authorization state for approval by the CAB approval group.

    Emergency changes cover the following types of emergencies:

    • Fix on fail or retroactive situations where the impact to service has already been experienced.
    • Fail or fail situations where the impact to service is imminent if action is not taken.
    These changes do not follow the complete life cycle of a normal change due to the speed with which they must be authorized. Therefore, they progress directly to the Authorize state for approval from the CAB Approval group.

    During an emergency change, there are chances that an unplanned CI change activity occurs. During such a case, an unauthorized change request is created and sent for approvals. For more information, see Unauthorized change request.

    Normal change

    Any service change that is not a standard change or an emergency change.

    Normal change requests follow a prescriptive process which requires two levels of approval before being implemented, reviewed, and closed. These changes require a full range of assessments and authorizations such as peer or technical approval, change management, and Change Advisory Board (CAB) authorization, to ensure completeness, accuracy, and the least possible disruption to service. These changes are most often scheduled outside of defined change blackout windows or during defined maintenance windows. The normal type is used to implement beneficial change for any change to a service that is not a standard or emergency change.

    The following table summarizes about the three change types: