Change FAQs

2. The status of all changes I create are automatically approved. What is the reason behind this?

Standard changes are pre-approved changes. Make sure you do not select the Change type to be Standard unless the change does not need approval from the Change manager.

 

3. Why does any change I create not get reflected in my change calendar, even though I mention the release start time and end time under planning stage?

The change schedule will be reflected in the change calendar only if a value is given for the scheduled start and end fields in the Submission stage.

 

 

4. I am unable to see a few technicians when I click the Change Manager field. How can I make other technicians appear in the Change Manager list?

The technicians must be assigned the role SDChangeManager for them to be visible in the list when selecting the change manager.

Go to Setup > Users & Permissions > Users > Technicians. Select a technician and click Assign Role.
 

 

5. Which role has the highest privilege in the Change Module?

The Change Manager role holds the highest privileges in the Change Module compared to other roles. The permissions associated with the Change Manager role cannot be customized.

 

6. What is the difference between a Change Manager and a Change Owner in terms of permissions?

A Change Manager on that specific change has full permissions and can have cross edit stage permissions, meaning they can edit stages regardless of whether they are approved or closed. In contrast, a Change Owner can only perform edit operations in the current and upcoming stages and will not have cross edit stage permission for an approved change.

In order to restrict cross edit stage permissions of a change owner even for unapproved change, you can navigate to Setup > Change Management > Change Role > Change Owner.

 

7. How can I set pre-approval for certain changes that don’t require any approvals?

A Pre-Approved Change is a type of change in IT Service Management that has been reviewed, documented, and approved in advance because it is low-risk, routine, and follows a well-defined process. These changes do not require additional CAB approval each time they are implemented, as their impact and risks are already understood and considered acceptable.

Go to Setup > Customization > Change Management > Change Type and set Change type to Pre-approved. Any change raised under this type will not require CAB approvals.

 

Please be informed that if the above pre-approval is enabled, the approvals under the CAB evaluation stage will be skipped and can be found with the below message.

 

8. I noticed that a few changes are automatically approved. Why is this happening?

   If you see a shield icon next to the approval status, it likely indicates a pre-approved change. A Pre-Approved Change is a type of change in IT Service Management that has been reviewed, documented, and approved in advance because it is low-risk, routine, and follows a well-defined process. These changes do not require additional approval each time they are implemented, as their impact and risks are already understood and considered acceptable.

Setup > Customization > Change Management > Change Type > Set Change type to Pre-approved. Any change raised under this type will not require approvals.

9. A user with the SDChange Manager role is reporting that they are unable to edit a change. What is the best way to troubleshoot this issue?

Technicians with the SDChangeManager role cannot edit the previous stage of a change request if a dedicated Change Manager is assigned to that specific change. In such cases, the Change Manager role, populated with a different technician, takes precedence.

 

10. A client is unable to associate requests and problems from the Associations tab as they can only see Change and Project associations. What could be the issue here?

Please ensure that the Planning stage is added to the workflow. Also, ensure that the technician has proper access to those modules. If the technician is assigned with a custom role, please navigate to that specific role and ensure that the permission was given.

 

11. Will additional fields and attachments be copied when a new change is created from a request?

Yes, the additional field value and attachments can be copied when a change is created from a request. For the additional field value to be passed, the change template must contain the same field name and field type for those added to the request template.

 

12. Is it possible to show a prompt and let them know that they can plan for a release only during weekends to avoid service disruption in change?

Yes, this can be configured with the help of conflict detection under Maintenance windows. Kindly refer, https://help.sdpondemand.com/conflict-detection$maintenance windows

 

13. Is it possible to add a new stage to a change?

Currently, it's not possible to add a new stage to a change. However, you can add new status options to an existing stage by navigating to Setup > Customization > Change Management > New Change Stage Status.

 

14. I do not want the line manager role to be played by all users.

 Except for the Change Manager, Change Owner, and Change Requester, you can configure who can play the other Change roles by navigating to Setup > Change Management > Change Role, then editing the specific role.

15. How to mandate status comment in a change?

You can do this by navigating to the specific change template under Templates & Forms, then clicking on the gear icon next to the comment field under the Submission stage.

16. I have only configured certain stages in a change but it shows all the stages post creation? How can I make the change only to show the stages and statuses added to the workflow?

You can define this in the workflow created. Please Navigate to Setup > Automation > Workflow > Change workflow > Edit Workflow.

 

17. Difference between Requests caused by change and Requests that initiated change?

Requests caused by Change: These are requests that arise as a direct result of a change that has already been implemented. They are typically related to the consequences or follow-up actions required after a change has been made.

Requests that initiated Change: These are requests that act as the initial trigger for a change to be implemented. They originate from users or stakeholders asking for a modification, upgrade, or new functionality that leads to a formal change process.

 

18. What does retrospective change mean?

A retrospective change refers to a change that has already been implemented but is documented and reviewed afterwards rather than following the standard change approval process before implementation. In other words, it might be an Emergency Change.

 

19. Is it possible to trigger survey for changes?

Yes, you can trigger surveys when a change request is closed. Please Navigate to Setup > User Survey > Survey Settings > Change.

 

Similar to Incident/Service Request, the survey can be triggered on every change getting closed or every certain number of Changes get closed, or every certain number of changes raised by a requester get closed

 

20. A user with the Implementer role in a specific change is unable to view certain statuses under the implementation stage. What could be the reason?

It could be because the Approve permission for the role is unchecked under Setup > Change Management > Change Role > Implementer.

 

21. How can we set the current user as the "Change Requester" automatically when creating a change?

You can set the Current user as Change requester using form rules. Setup > Templates & Forms > Form Rules > Change > New Form rule.

 

 

22. How can we restrict the creation of non-emergency changes during the financial year-end?

You can restrict change creation using Conflict Detection. To do this, navigate to Setup > Automation > Conflict Detection > Change Freeze Window.

 

23. The client states that the Change Owner is unable to edit previous stages of an approved change. What could be the issue?

Yes, as per the behavior, the Change Owner will not be able to edit the previous stages of an approved change. Only the Change Manager has the authority to edit the previous stages after the change has been approved.

 

24. A customer reports that the approval status of a change is still pending even after the change was approved, and shares the below workflow screenshot.

As shown in the above screenshot, the approved status of the CAB Evaluation stage is not connected and appears empty. To ensure the change status is set to approved, the approved status of the CAB stage needs to be looped. You can add approvals in all stages, but the approval status of the change request can be set to approved/rejected only if the change is updated through CAB Evaluation stage approved/rejected. This can be done by updating the workflow as configured below.

 

25. How to configure approval delegation for the Change Module?

The global delegation added will be applied for change approvals alone by default. Kindly refer to know more about delegation: https://help.sdpondemand.com/delegation.

 

26. What details are required from clients if the workflow execution fails?

1. Print View PDF of the Change request.
2. Workflow Execution PDF
3. Workflow Log Viewer

 

27. Is it possible to create recurring changes every month?

Yes, you can create recurring changes with the help of the Maintenance module.

Go to Maintenance > Change > New Maintenance. Kindly refer to this link: https://help.sdpondemand.com/maintenances.

 

28. How can we enforce a complete restriction on changes, ensuring no one can bypass stage movements?

      A global restriction can be applied to all changes by navigating to Setup > Workflows > Change Workflow > Global Workflow Settings.

29. Our technicians are leaving changes at the review stage without properly closing them. How can we address this?

You can configure a trigger-timer to remind the reviewer for a set number of days before escalating it to the Change Manager. To do this, navigate to Setup > Automation > Triggers > Change > New Trigger.

 

Kindly refer to https://help.sdpondemand.com/custom-actions-timers

 

30. How can we mandate certain fields and tasks before moving to the next stage for all changes?

You can mandate fields and tasks to be closed before moving to the next stage using Closure Rules. To configure this, navigate to Setup > Automation > Closure Rules > Change Closure Rules.

 

31. How can we mandate certain fields and tasks before moving to the next stage in specific changes using workflow?

For fields, you can define them in the workflow with the help of Wait For condition

 

For tasks, when adding a task in the workflow, you can enable the checkbox below so that the technicians are forced to complete the task before moving to the next stage.

 

32. I can see only the submission stage fields while creating a new change in change form. Is it possible to make the planning stage fields to be available?

Yes, you can enable this in the change template. Navigate to Setup > Templates & Forms > Change Templates, select the desired template, go to the Planning stage, and check the option highlighted below.

 

33. Is it possible to trigger a notification when an email response is received for high-priority changes?

Yes, this can be achieved with the help of Triggers.

Go to Setup > Automation > Triggers > Change > New Trigger and configure as below.

 

34. Is there a way to hide completed approvals of a completed approval level from my pending approvals section in the self-service portal?

Yes, we can enable a setting from the backend to hide the pending approvals of a completed approval level from the Self-service portal. Please reach out to SDP Cloud support on the same.

 

35. What are the special permissions of other SDChange Managers when a change is assigned with the change Manager?

If any user assigned in change manager role of a particular change request, other SDChangeManager will not get any special access over this change request where as if no specific change managers assigned for a particular change request, all users with SDChangeManger will get the mentioned access.

If you have SDChange Manager role, youd be able to update any role and status of all stages even though that user is not associated with any role in that specific change.

 

36. What are the special permissions do change manager have in a closed change?

The following special permissions are available for the Change Manager user in a closed change request,

1. Can edit the fields of the completed stages
2. Can attach/detach associations of request/problem/project
3. Can manage the tasks of completed stages
4. Can delete the approvals of a pending approval levels of a completed stage

 

37. When we try to restrict change creation for a specific time span using the freeze window, and it looks like the change creation is allowed during the mentioned time span, What could be the reason?

We allow change creation without restriction if the change creating user account has SDChangeManager role privilege.

 

38. I am unable to add an approval level to the consolidated approvals list view.

Post creation of the change, the approval can be manually added by navigating to each stage individually, and it is not possible to add from the consolidated approvals list view. 

Also note that approvals can be added only to the current stage of the change request.

 

39. Does move field to another stage is supported in the change template?

Yes, you can simply hover over the additional field to find the move field option as shown below.

It is recommended to move the field instead of deleting the field from the current stage and re-adding them back to another stage. The above action would end up in data loss.

 

40. Is there a way to configure change risk assessment in SDP Cloud?

Kindly follow this link to configure change risk assessment: https://help.sdpondemand.com/change-risk-assessment

 

41. I am a SDAdmin configured a custom function for a change but I dont think it is working. What could be the reason?

Kindly ensure that the user also has a SDChange Manager permission. If you still see that the CF doesnt work, please navigate to Setup > Automation > Custom function.  Click Test and execute, and share us the screenshot.

 

42. The custom function running is executed by a specific Admins account. We would want that CF to be executed as system or is it possible to change the user account from where the CF is being executed.

The first SDAdmin who has configured the custom function initially will be the execution owner account. Please contact support if you like to have it changed to a different account, but it is not possible to set it as executed by the system.

 

43. While submitting for a new change, I could only see submission stage fields. Is it possible to add other stage fields while submitting a change form?

Please navigate to the Setup > Templates & Forms. Open Change Template and go to the Planning stage. Ensure the below option is selected. This option would list all the fields from the planning stage while creating a new change. However, it is not possible to list the fields from other stages of the change.

 

 

44. I could see few change forms have the change downtime, and few doesn't. What is the criteria to have the change downtime option visible while creating a new change. 

The change downtime is associated with the planning stage, so only if the above mentioned option is selected you can enable the change downtime in the change form submission. 

 

45. Is there a way I can restrict creating a copy change or maintenance change outside operational hours?

Yes, this can be achieved using the Abort Operation action in Business Rules. Follow the steps below:

1. Go to Setup > Automation > Business Rules

2. From the dropdown, select Change as the module.

3. Click Add New Rule and configure it as needed (e.g., based on the condition as Origin).

4. In the Action, select Abort Operation and provide an appropriate message (e.g., Copy or Maintenance Changes are not allowed outside operational hours).

Use the Execute Anytime option if you'd like the rule to apply universally, regardless of the requestor or technician.