Phases of an express change

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This product provides two change management workflows you can use to manage express Changes: PMCHGFIXD1 and PMCHGFLEXD1. You can choose the workflow that suits your business needs and either use it as-is or configure it to better conform to your company process.

For information about selecting the express workflow that is best for your environment, see Determining the right default workflow.

After you choose the express workflow that you want to use, you can configure your Change environment to use the selected workflow. If you elect to start the workflow when you create a Change, the workflow that starts is the one that is specified as the pmchg.process.workflow property in the System Configuration application. The specified workflow is linked to the workflow icon in the Changes application toolbar. See Specifying your default workflow for more information.

The two express workflows are as follows:

PMCHGFIXD1: This workflow operates like a wizard. It guides the Change through a series of sequential steps to the completion of the process. It ensures that all steps are completed in a certain order.
PMCHGFLEXD1: Instead of going through all of the steps sequentially, this workflow completes only the steps for the current phase of the process, updates the status, and exits. The user clicks the workflow icon again to start the next step in the process. This workflow is more flexible than PMCHGFIXD1; for example, you can go back and change the status to an earlier phase in the process and redo that earlier phase. The user has more control with this workflow.

The following table describes the phases of the PMCHGFIXD1 and PMCHGFLEXD1 workflow processes. If you modify either workflow or create your own workflow for an express Change, your process steps might differ. In addition, depending on the type of a Change that you are processing, the workflow might skip steps that are not required for its Change type. For more information, see Process variations based on Change type.

At various points in the process, the workflow notifies users of assignments that they need to fulfill in order for the process to proceed. These task assignments are shown in the Current Workflow Assignments dialog box, which is displayed in the Changes application. See Current Workflow Assignments for more information.

Each of the phases described in this table has its own information center section, where you can obtain more detailed information.

Change Phase	Description
Initiating a Change	In the New Change dialog, specify basic information about the Change to be created. If you check Start Change process workflow, the workflow that is linked to the workflow icon starts automatically. If you do not check the box, you can click the workflow icon to start the workflow. See “Creating a new Change” for more information.
Accepting and categorizing a Change	If the change does not have a valid status value (for example, WAPPR, ASSESS, SCHED), the workflow shows a dialog saying that the Change is complete. If the status is valid, the workflow examines your input and validates the supplied information. If you have not supplied an owner or owner group, the workflow assigns this task to you. If the Change is a standard type and the status is WAPPR (waiting for approval), the Change is marked as per-approved and the implementation phase can begin. For normal and emergency Changes, assessment is the next phase.
Assessing a Change	The workflow assigns an assessment task to the Change owner or owner group. The Change owner/owner group assesses the Change to make sure it falls within business guidelines and all of the required information is provided.
Scheduling a Change	The workflow assigns the scheduling task to the Change owner or owner group, which specifies the schedule start and finish dates. In addition, the Change owner/owner group can add optional schedule approvers.
Authorizing a Change	If people or person groups were added as approvers, they are asked for authorization. All of them need to authorize the Change for it to be implemented. If one of the authorizers rejects the Change, the owner decides whether to resubmit the Change. If there are no approvers, or if the added person groups do not include any people, the Change owner is asked to authorize or reject the Change.
Implementing a Change	After implementors perform their implementation tasks, the Change owner specifies whether implementation is complete. Implemented Changes are closed (for standard Changes) or sent to review (for normal/emergency Changes). If implementors have not performed their tasks as scheduled, the Change owner can check a box to specify that the Change will be rescheduled; in this case, the status automaticaly changes to SCHED and the process goes back to the scheduling phase.
Reviewing and closing a Change	The Change owner reviews the Change and marks it closed or failed.