Skip to tutorial content
Rate module Not yet rated

Emergency Changes

4 min read
On this page

In this lesson, you will learn:

  • When a change is an emergency
  • How the emergency path differs
  • Who approves it at SNWR
  • How to test it

🔁 Quick look back: Last time: Standard Change Proposals and Template Versions. You learned how a template is proposed, approved, updated and retired through proposals.

1 10:35, the email outage

Arjun knows the fix: move email to the backup server, snwr-mail-02.

  • A normal change would wait for Tuesday’s CAB.
  • Doing it with no record would be the Friday-night mistake again.
  • Mumbai HQ has been without email for an hour.

🎯 The problem: Some changes can’t wait, but they still need control.

👉 The fix: raise an emergency change, with a short, fast approval path.

2 The emergency path

Emergency change CHG0030046 compared with a normal change. Normal: New, Assess, Authorize by CAB at the weekly meeting, Scheduled, Implement, Review. Emergency: New, Authorize by the emergency CAB within minutes, Implement, then Review with a full post-implementation check. Emergency CAB at SNWR: Mei, Beth and Daniel, any two can approve.
Figure 1. Fewer steps, faster approval, still recorded.

Key term: Emergency CAB

A small group that can approve emergency changes quickly, often by phone or chat.

SNWR emergency CAB
Members Mei, Beth and Daniel
Approval Any two of them
Target Decision within 15 minutes

3 After the emergency

  • Link the change to the major incident, INC0010150.
  • Review it in the next CAB meeting.
  • Count emergency changes each month. Too many means planning problems.

⚠️ Heads up: An emergency change still needs a backout plan, even a short one. What if the failover fails?

4 Let’s try it: test an emergency change

  1. Create a new change and pick the Emergency type.
  2. Short description: Fail over SNWR Email to snwr-mail-02. Add a short plan and backout plan.
  3. Link it to your test major incident.
  4. Move it forward and look at the states. Which steps are skipped compared with normal?
  5. Check who is asked to approve it.

5 Quick recap

  • Emergency changes fix or prevent a major incident, now
  • They skip Assess and the weekly CAB
  • The emergency CAB approves in minutes
  • They still need a plan, a backout plan and a review
  • Link them to the major incident

6 Check yourself

Think of your answer first. Then tap to check.

1 Why was the email failover an emergency change? Show answer

Email was down for a whole office, so it couldn’t wait for CAB.

2 Who approves SNWR’s emergency changes? Show answer

The emergency CAB: any two of Mei, Beth and Daniel.

3 Does an emergency change need a backout plan? Show answer

Yes, even a short one.

4 What does a high number of emergency changes suggest? Show answer

Planning problems.

Nice work! You tested SNWR’s emergency change path. 🎉
Next up: Change Plans and Change Tasks

Was this lesson helpful?

Have a question or doubt?

Ask here and get help from instructors and fellow learners.

0 / 300

Only logged-in learners can post.