Uncontrolled software releases and ad-hoc infrastructure modifications cause up to 80% of enterprise IT service outages. A robust Change Request (CRQ) approval workflow ensures deployments are thoroughly evaluated before reaching production.
1. The Three Change Request Types
- Standard Change: Low-risk, pre-approved, routine maintenance (e.g., standard OS patching).
- Normal Change: Non-emergency modifications requiring formal technical review and Change Advisory Board (CAB) sign-off.
- Emergency Change: Urgent fixes for active P1 outages, evaluated by Emergency CAB (eCAB).
2. Key Stages of Change Governance
A compliant change approval pipeline moves through 9 strict operational stages:
Draft → Submitted → Technical Review → Risk Assessment → CAB Approval → Scheduled → Implemented → Post-Implementation Review (PIR) → Closed
3. Enforcing Mandatory Rollback Plans
Every Change Request submitted in MBX CORTEX mandates a validated emergency backout plan with estimated rollback minutes to guarantee fast recovery if maintenance fails.