Approving or Rejecting a Change Request

• Check the RFC to ensure that it is complete, accurate, and contains enough information and the appropriate level of information for CAB review.
• If the change may affect other services or requires coordination, ensure that you have worked with the other areas of TTS.
• If applicable, ensure that the business owners are aware of the change, have been communicated with appropriately, and have approved the change.
• When reviewing change requests on behalf of your team or directorate, especially if the change will be sent further to CAB, pay close attention to these fields. If the fields are brief in TechConnect, be sure that you have discussed this change in detail with the initiating employee.
  • Services/Applications Affected – Does the change request accurately identify the applications or services affected by the change?
  • Change Plan – What are the details of the change plan itself?
  • Back Out Plans – Should the change fail, is a back out plan clearly identified? Are the required steps to back out documented and included within the plans?
  • Test Plans – How will the change result be tested and verified that it is running as expected? Test plans should also include an explanation of the testing that has been done in preparation for the change.
• Please note that after you approve a medium or high risk change, that change will automatically be sent to CAB for approval. A careful review of the change request done by you prior to formal submission to CAB for approval will ensure that changes are well planned and prepared for approval.  A request for change that is well written, including clear and concise details regarding the justification and impact, stands a better change of obtaining CAB approval versus a change that has little, unclear or no details included.

1. To simply approve the change request, click the Click Here to Approve link in the email.
2. If you’d like to first view more information about the change, log in to TechConnect and navigate to the My Approvals section of the Change Management Module. All change requests waiting for your approval are listed here.

    

3. Click on a change to open and view that change request.
4. If the change needs edits, you can make them yourself and re-save the change request before approving, OR you can use the Work Notes to request that the Initiator make changes.

    

5. To approve, scroll down to the Approvals section of the change request, which is to the right of the Work Notes tab.
6. In the row listing you as approver, double-click on the word Requested in the State column. You will see a drop-down menu.
7. Select Approved and click the green check mark to update that field.
8. Then, Update or Save (by right-clicking in the top menu bar) the change request to save your Approval.
9. Importantly, the change initiator that submitted the change request will not be automatically notified of the approval. Make sure to reach out to the change initiator and let them know the change has been approved, and they can either continue working or are waiting for CAB review.

Note: If you are asked to approve a change, and you notice the RFC needs edits, rework, or more information, do not reject the change. Rejecting indicates that the change won't be happening at this time, needs extensive additional planning or work, etc. Rejecting a change will fully close it and it cannot be opened or re-approved.

1. To simply reject the change request, click the Click here to reject link in the email.
2. If you’d like to first view more information about the change, log in to TechConnect and navigate to the My Approvals section of the Change Management Module. All change requests waiting for your approval are listed here.
3. Click on a change to open and view that change request.
4. If the change should not be rejected immediately but needs edits before approval, you can make them yourself and re-save the change request before approving, OR you can use the Work Notes to request that the Initiator make changes.
5. To reject the change, scroll down to the Approvals section of the change request.
6. In the row listing you as approver, double-click on the word Requested in the State column. You will see a drop-down menu.
7. Select Rejected and click the green check mark to update that field.
8. Then, Update or Save (by right-clicking in the top menu bar) the change request to save your Approval.
9. After you reject the change, the RFC will be automatically closed.

Importantly, the change initiator that submitted the change request will not be automatically notified of the rejection. Make sure to reach out to the change initiator and let them know the change has been rejected

Before approving a change, CAB will evaluate the completeness of the RFC (e.g. change was appropriately communicated, has been tested, etc) and will look for any scheduling issues

If the change is approved, the RFC will automatically move into the Implement state. 

Importantly, the change initiator that submitted the change request will not be automatically notified of the approval. Make sure to reach out to the change initiator and let them know the change has been approved.

CAB may decide to reject a change due to insufficient information, insufficient planning, or other reasons.

In this case, the RFC will be returned to the Open state and can be edited by the Initiator and/or Functional Manager and then re-submitted for CAB approval using the CAB Review button. Alternatively, the change can be Cancelled.

Importantly, the change initiator that submitted the change request will not be automatically notified of the rejection. Make sure to reach out to the change initiator and let them know the change has been rejected.