TDX Change: Fill out and Submit a Change Ticket

The main functionality of a Change ticket in TeamDynamix is similar to that of other ticket classifications. There are several required fields to document the details with the Change. This article covers how to fill out fields that are unique to Change tickets and how to complete the Change Cycle.

• Filling out a Change Ticket
• Submitting the Change Ticket for approval

Important Notes:

• You can make a Change ticket be the parent ticket of a Problem ticket if the Change ticket is a result of the root cause analysis of a Problem ticket. See Work with Parent/Child Ticket Relationships for more information on how to do this, and then start at step 3 below in Filling out a Change Ticket.
• You can use the Ticket Calendar to view upcoming Changes and Change Freeze dates before scheduling your own Change.

Filling out a Change Ticket

1. Navigate to the User (TDNext) area of TeamDynamix.
2. Click on +New and select Change Form from the dropdown menu. Your name will automatically populate the Requestor field.
   • Change the Requestor field if you are filling out the form on behalf of someone else.
3. Fill out the remaining fields in the form:
   • Change Type: Selectable dropdown for the type of change. Here is the description of the options based on our current process: 
     • Standard (non-CAB): A pre-approved change that is low risk, relatively common and follows a procedure or work instruction.
     • Normal (CAB): Any change that can be scheduled (and therefore is not an emergency) and will impact service or carries risk to do so (such as upgrades, major service-impacting reconfigurations). Normal changes require formal review by the CAB and approval through weekly CAB meetings.
     • Emergency (ECAB): A change that must be introduced as soon as possible (e.g. to resolve a major incident or implement a security patch). 
   • Planned Start Date/Planned End Date: Click into the fields to open a date picker for selecting when the implementation of the change will start and end.
     • Note: Be careful to choose the correct start and end dates. The Date Picker will not notify you if your end date is set to a date earlier to the start date.
   • Service: Type the technology or service area affected or use the Lookup Service button to search through Services in a new window.
   • Type: This field gathers information to report on higher level categories of IT services that align with the ECAR Higher Education IT Service Catalog model. Follow these tips to select the best Type for each ticket.
     • Enter the Service field below this field first; Type will sometimes auto-populate based on what is placed in Service.
     • Use the Lookup button and see the Category dropdown menu to help narrow your search of IT areas.
       
     • See the complete Type list used in TDX for all options for this field.
   • Responsible: Enter the Responsible Group this change is associated with.
     • Do NOT put an individual person in this field. This field must contain the Responsible Group name in it. This is critical to ensure that the proper change approvals are routed.
     • Uncheck the Notify Responsible box if you do not want the entire Responsible Group to be notified of this change.
   • Major Incident Manager: The name of the individual who will manage resolution if the change implementation causes a Major Incident.
   • Impact: Choose the best descriptor from the dropdown menu to indicate how many people are being affected by this incident.
   • Urgency: Choose the best descriptor from the dropdown menu to indicate the urgency of the incident based on how critical the incident is to affecting work being done.
   • Priority: This field will populate itself based on what Impact and Urgency are set at. See TDX Ticket Priority Grid for more information.
   • Title: Write a clear, concise title for the change.
   • Description: Give a 1-2 sentence summary of the change that is taking place.
   • Attachment: If there is any documentation for this change that should be considered, please use this field to attach a file with the documentation to the ticket.
   • The fields titled Knowledge Base Article, Asset/CI, and Task Template can stay blank.
4. Complete the following free-form text boxes with as much information as you can:
   • Change Plan: The details for how the change will be implemented. A full plan of actions to be taken.
   • Risk Analysis: What has the potential to go wrong and how are these risks being accounted for?
   • Backout Plan: The plan to back out of the change if needed. Details and timing of how to restore service.
   • Test Plan: The planning that has been performed on the change prior to its implementation.
   • Verification Plan: A description of how the change will be verified as successful once implemented.
   • Communication Plan: Who will be notified of the change, how and when.
   • Change Successful: Updated with the details of the success of the change. Can be set to "Not Yet Implemented" until such time that the change is implemented, then select the appropriate option based on the success of the change.
5. Start Date for the Change Calendar/End Date for the Change Calendar: Click into the fields to open a date picker for selecting when the implementation of the change will start and end.
   • These dates should be the same dates you put in the Planned Start Date/Planned End Date field above.
   • The dates in these fields populate the Change ticket on the Ticket Calendar that tracks all Changes.
6. Decide to Post Change Details to the Status Page? 
   • Checking this box will post the change details (Title, Description, Planned Start/End Date) to the Service Status Page.
7. Select Save at the top of the window.
   • Selecting Save at this point in the process does NOT submit your change ticket to CAB. It creates a draft of the change ticket that you can continue to edit and revise before it is ready to be submitted to CAB.
   • A window will open confirming your change ticket draft has been created and asking you if you would like to create another ticket or view the current ticket you just created.
     
8. Click View the change you just created. 
9. Review the form carefully. 
   • Use the Edit button at the top of the form to make any changes or updates. 

Submitting the Change Ticket for approval

Once the form has been completed, someone from the Responsible Group needs to open the Change form and Mark the Plan Change Request (Task) as complete to officially submit the change ticket for approval. If any of the change fields are not filled in, the workflow will recreate the task until all required fields in the form are completed.

1. Navigate to the Change form you need to submit for approval.
2. Scan the right side of the ticket to see the Current Activities box. There will be a Workflow Task titled Plan Change Request.
   
3. Click Mark Complete. The Current Activities area of the ticket will update with the next step in the ticket workflow. The workflow is a combination of approvals and ticket tasks.

See TDX Change: Overview of the Change Process Workflow for what happens after a the Plan Change Request has been marked complete.