Manage change process narrative
Normal Changes
The manage change process begins when a request for service is submitted to the IT department. These requests may be initiated by a business user (e.g., a change to a Great Plains report) or by IT (e.g., infrastructure change); but in either case, the appropriate IT staff member works with the requestor to review requirements and then determines the appropriate system solution. The IT staff member then completes the Change Request (CR) Form. All requests for system changes are captured and managed from this central repository. Each change must be individually authorized by both a director of the functional unit and the systems development manager.
Once the change is authorized, the software developer performs the required changes in the development environment and tests them. When the software developer completes testing, he or she signs the change control form and then notifies the systems development manager that the change is ready for end-user testing. The systems development manager moves the change to the test environment and notifies the requestor that the change is ready for user testing. Changes are then reviewed and tested by the requestor. The requestor indicates that the change is ready to move to the production environment by signing the CR. The functional business unit director must then review the change and test results and give final approval for the change to move to production. Once all the required signatures have been obtained, the systems development manager moves the indicated changes to the production environment and signs the CR to indicate completion.
Infrastructure Changes
All changes to supporting infrastructure, including parameter changes, follow the same process documented above.
Emergency Changes
Emergency changes follow the same procedure that is outlined above. However, the approvals and sign-offs are obtained during the business day following the change.
Change Review
On a monthly basis, the Chief Information Officer (CIO) obtains a list of all of the objects that were changed during the month. She then reconciles each of the changes to an approved CR and supporting documentation.
Segregation of Incompatible Duties
Separate environments are maintained for development, testing and production. The development environment is named S&B Great Plains-Dev, the test environment is named SB Great Plains-Test and the production environment is named S&B Great Plains-Prod.
Great Plains enforces segregation of incompatible duties, as it does not allow programmers to make changes in the production environment for programs they have been developing. To develop a change, a user must be assigned to the developer role within the specific environment. The software vendor has limited the developer role so that it is available only in the development environment and is not available in either test or production. The system is set up so that the person programming in the development environment cannot make the updated in the production environment. To mitigate the risk of inappropriate changes between environments, a user must be assigned the role of “promoter” in both environments. They must have this role for the environment that they are moving from and the environment that they are moving to. Someone who is assigned the developer role cannot “promote” the changes made in the development environment.