As so often in IT, Murphy’s law has struck again.

It was a regular Mgmt CAB (Management Change Advisory Board) when one of the Changes regarding one of my platforms was challenged. In situations like that, I have to decide between a fight or flight response. I chose the second option as I didn’t want to risk a bad surprise and a second look into the Change may be worth it. Later in the same Mgmt CAB another Change was discussed. The project leader told us how much experience he has and how well they tested everything. Nobody questioned it and I was already busy reviewing the Change which was challenged.

“My” Change

It’s important to be convinced about the planing of a Change, as I have to prepare my peers for the sneaky questions of an Mgmt CAB. Roughly what I do is to build my own opinion about:

• The mitigation of Risks
• The Quality of the Fallback/Rollback plan
• The timing of Change (Maintenance windows, Business peaks,…)
• …tbc

After my analysis, I discuss my findings with the technical teams and they do adjustments if required.

In the end, everyone was convinced in the second Mgmt CAB and the Change went smoothly.

The “low-risk” Change

Unfortunately went the other Change not as smooth. The maintenance work took longer than planned and the tests didn’t cover all affected services. In addition to that, not all stakeholders were considered in the Fallback plan and due to the approved long Maintenance window, the events were not handled as usual and, and, and… Murphy’s law