Change management tips & tricks

For the past four years I have had the pleasure of working in the automotive industry in the UK. It is an industry where work never stops and at most the window for making changes to systems is no more than a few hours during shift change. To make matters worse if you find you have a problem with one of your changes during production hours you have no more than 30 minutes to correct it. Here are a few tips that have saved me many times.

A touch of paranoia (The Good Kind)

Out of all the tips listed here I believe this one has saved me the most. Whenever I need to make a change to one of the systems under my care the first thing I look at is what could go wrong. By doing this I can make people aware of what can go wrong and what we need to do to make sure it does not go wrong, or what can be done if things do go wrong. By looking at what can happen it allows me to work out what can be done before the changes go ahead and get everything I need together.

Disaster recovery plan

When you are planning a change to a critical system this is always a good time to get the old disaster recovery plan out and make sure you have it in reach when you make the changes. Hopefully you will never need to use your recovery plan but there is always a chance you may need to re-install an application and the recovery plan may have useful information in it.

Plan, Plan, Plan

A bit of an obvious one, but don’t just plan for what you will be doing. Plan for what can go wrong too. If you are installing new equipment make sure you have the install disks and install disk for things like the operating system. Also worth having all the files and disks and information you need for your disaster recovery plan at hand. That way you should have everything you need no matter what happens.

Make backups

The first step in my plans is always to create backups. If you are working on a server or desktop make sure you have a full backup. This could be as simple as a good backup from your normal backup process. If I am working on a database I would also take a backup of the database before I make changes. It is also a good idea to make a copy of any directories or files of importance that will be affected during the changes. If you happen to be working on network equipment make backups of the configuration or take screenshots to remind you of what settings you have changed.

Test your changes

Wherever possible I try to make the changes on a test system. With servers and computers this can be done with some ease by using tools from VMware or Microsoft. I create a virtual copy of the computer and update that version and make sure that the update works and I don’t run into any problems. With other types of equipment this may not always be possible, but any kind of testing you are able to do will always be a help.

Make a back out plan

After all my planning I always take a little time to look at my plan and make notes of how I could return the system to what it was before. This becomes a great tool when you have made some of your changes and realise that there is a problem that cannot be fixed and you need to get the system backup and running. I have also found this tip handy when changes I am making take longer than expected and I have run out of time. If you have made backups before starting these will most likely help in restoring the system.

I hope some of these tips help you out in your change management, and I hope to hear some tips you may have to add.

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