Change Lifecycle in Freshservice
Change Lifecycle in Freshservice
The Change Lifecycle in Freshservice represents the process flow for managing changes within your service desk. It provides a structured framework to control each step of the change management process, ensuring that you can enforce necessary checks and set mandatory fields at different stages of the change. This helps minimize risks, reduce duplicate efforts from failed changes, and ensure your IT services align with evolving business needs.
Types of Changes in Freshservice
Freshservice offers default change types that can be customized to meet your organization's requirements. You can modify the status and transitions associated with these change types within the Change Lifecycle.
Standard Change: These are changes that occur regularly, are pre-planned and pre-approved, have low risk and impact, and do not require CAB (Change Advisory Board) approval. Example: Operating System (OS) upgrade.
Minor Change: Changes with low impact and risk that still require CAB approval. They go through the full change lifecycle. Example: Website updates.
Major Change: Changes with medium to high impact, potentially affecting business operations and requiring CAB and management approval due to their financial implications. Example: Data center migration.
Emergency Change: Critical changes that need to be implemented immediately. These changes bypass some approval steps, requiring Emergency CAB approval, with a review happening later to minimize risk. Example: Security patch deployment.
Understanding the Change Lifecycle in Freshservice
The Change Lifecycle consists of the following key elements:
Status: A status represents any stage in the change management process. Examples include stages such as Open, Planning, Awaiting Approval, and more.
Transition: A transition refers to the process of moving from one status to another. For example, a change may transition from Open to Planning as part of the workflow.
Condition: A condition defines the criteria that must be met before transitioning from one status to another. For example, you may configure that all tasks must be completed before a change can move from Open to Planning.
Supported Conditions
Freshservice supports several conditions to ensure smooth transitions in the Change Lifecycle:
All Tasks on Change are Complete: This condition checks whether all tasks associated with the change request have been completed. If not, the transition will be prevented.
Requested Approvals are Approved: For changes that require approvals, this condition ensures that all requested approvals are granted before the transition occurs.
Mandatory Fields: This condition ensures that all required fields have been filled out before allowing the change to progress to the next status.
By configuring these conditions, you can enforce necessary steps and ensure the integrity of your change management process.