If you make significant and/or major changes to a service that underpins other services then it is always a good idea to communicate, especially with the relevant Service Owners and the Service Desk and CRS teams.

With this in mind, the Service Process team recommend that change owners send a short email to the NUIT-All mailing list in advance of implementing a significant or major change that carries the risk of other services suffering impact in the event that the change fails, allowing sufficient time for people to mitigate those risks.

NUIT-All is the most appropriate mailing list since it will reach all service owners, or in their absence a deputy and also reach the first-line service teams.

It is a good idea to standardise the subject line of your email by using the pre-fix “Change Notification: ” – this will facilitate quick identification of such messages for those interested yet also provide a common attribute for those that wish to filter out these messages by setting an appropriate Outlook rule.

Within your email, as well as including the change ticket reference, a brief summary of the change and the date and time of planned implementation, you could consider whether it is also appropriate to say: ‘while it is not anticipated that there will be any interruption to named services, they should be considered at risk during the stated period.’

Finally, please also consider whether there should be outward communications about your planned change (i.e. to customers) – if so, please log a SAMM* request to the IT Service Desk.

Please note that this email notification suggestion is in addition to an appropriate communication plan constructed by the change owner and/or those involved in the change.

*A SAMM is an IT Service Desk news headline that displays on the IT Service website: http://www.ncl.ac.uk/itservice/news/