What is an Emergency Change?

An Emergency Change is a high priority change that requires the bypassing of the normal change process in order to mitigate a production issue in the shortest possible time. Emergency changes fall within one of the following categories:

• Fix on fail or retroactive situations where the impact to service has already been experienced.
• Fix or fail situations where the impact to service is imminent if action is not taken.

 

Emergency Change Data Flow

 

How to Create a New Emergency Change

1. In the filter navigator, search for Change and click Create New.
   
   
   
   
2. On the "What type of change is required?" screen, click Emergency: Unplanned changes necessary to restore service. These changes require CAB authorization only.
   
   
   
   
3. Complete all the required fields for the Change Request and any additional fields that would be helpful for both completion and CAB evaluation.  In particular these are the data fields at the top of the record and those on the Planning tab.  When the documentation is complete, press the Save button.
    

   PRO TIP
   If you're not ready to move to the next phase of the request and wish to work on something else within ServiceNow, press the Submit button. You can come back to this Change Request and pick up where you left off by searching for the CHG####### number in the top-right global search.  Alternatively, you could search for Change in the filter navigator, view all Open changes and find your change there.

   Upon submission or saving this record, a notification will be sent to the individual who requested the change (Requested By), if that person isn't the same individual who opened this Change.
   
   
   
   [Current State: New]
   
   
4. To move the change to the next phase, provide the Planned start date, Planned end date, Assignment group, and Assigned to field data and press the Request Approval button.
   
   A notification will be sent to the Assigned to individual, unless you are that person.
   
   An Approval Request notification will be sent to each member of the Emergency CAB (eCAB).
   
   
   
   
   

   [Current State: Authorize]

5. If an eCAB member rejects the request, the change is canceled.
   
   If an eCAB member approves the request, you may proceed with your change at the approved planned time but don't forget to keep working the change record. The change will assigned a CAB date and be added to the agenda for the next CAB meeting to be reviewed.
   
   [Current State: Scheduled]
   
   
6. When you are ready to start implementing the change, press the Implement button. 
   
   
   
   [Current State: Implement]
   
   Entering the implementation phase automatically fills in the Actual start field and creates a Change Task (CTASK#######) to complete this Change Request.
   
   
    

   IMPORTANT
   If you are not in the Assignment Group, the Change Task will not get assigned to you. If you are doing the work, make sure the Task gets Assigned to a group that you are a member and then to yourself.  A notification will be sent to the "Assigned to" individual to complete the work.

   
   
   
7. The individual assigned the Change Task now completes the actual change work and closes the task.  This action automatically closes the Change Request and the Requested by individual will receive a notification that the Change has been completed.
   
   
   
   [Current State: Closed]
   
   Notice that the parent Emergency Change is now closed and the Actual end field was filled in.
   
   

 

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