[Blog] Responsibilities of Change Advisory Board (CAB) and Change Manager
Everyone knows change is never easy, but often quite necessary. The statement is never truer than in IT.
Solid change management capability will help you boost your ITSM maturity, break out of the "firefighting mode," align IT activity with business objectives, and transform IT from a service provider to a business innovator. However, these benefits don't come easily. Change management is one of the most difficult ITIL processes to get right. Why? Because change management is an ITSM process that needs the right mix of people, processes, and technologies.
In this post, we are going to talk about two key roles in Change management that decide the destiny of a change.
Change Advisory Board (CAB):
CAB members are a group of people that advises the Change Manager on assessing, prioritizing and scheduling Changes. This group usually comprises representatives from all areas within an organization and there are no rules defined on who's on the CAB.
The CAB is usually conferred for major/significant changes that will have a crucial impact on the organization. The CAB members are asked to consider and recommend the adoption or rejection of change appropriate for higher-level authorization and then recommendations will be submitted to the appropriate Change Manager.
CAB recommendation is typically done as simple as an email distribution list, or as stern as a numerous high-level members-marshaled meeting.
Change Manager:
The Change Manager is the owner of Change Management. Even though it takes a certain type of person to fill the shoes of a change manager (particularly in the early stages of a change), this role is decisive as he is accountable for the execution of the process.
He typically heads the Change Advisory Board (CAB) and is responsible for final review; approval and authorizing a change. He will have the authority to re-assess the risk or impact level and can request additional information before approving a change or can reject it if needed.
His primary objective is to ensure that all the activities designed to implement the change are as per the standards and implemented with a minimal (or) no disruption to IT services.
Watch this webinar to learn how you can streamline your change management process with ServiceDesk Plus.
You’ll also want to check our previous article on Transforming User Experience.