Overview#
Controlled process for modifying infrastructure and applications. Ensures risk assessment, approvals, and rollback plans are in place for production changes.
Core objectives#
- Establish shared definitions of Change Management for security, engineering, and leadership teams.
- Connect Change Management activities to measurable risk reduction and resilience goals.
- Provide onboarding notes so new team members can quickly understand how Change Management works here.
Implementation notes#
- Identify the primary owner for Change Management, the data sources involved, and the systems affected.
- Document the minimum viable process, tooling, and runbooks that keep Change Management healthy.
- Map Change Management practices to standards such as ISO/IEC 27001, NIST CSF, or CIS Controls.
Operational signals#
- Leading indicators: early warnings that Change Management might degrade (e.g., backlog growth, noisy alerts, or missed SLAs).
- Lagging indicators: realized impact that shows Change Management failed or needs investment (e.g., incidents, audit findings).
- Feedback loops: retrospectives and metrics reviews that tune Change Management continuously.
Related practices#
- Align Change Management with defense-in-depth planning, threat modeling, and disaster recovery tests.
- Communicate updates to stakeholders through concise briefs, dashboards, and internal FAQs.
- Pair Change Management improvements with tabletop exercises to validate expectations.