Abstract-Every organization undergoes change on a continual basis and must understand how to manage the change process.This article overviews change management and discusses software packages and other tools that can help organizations manage the inevitable changes which occur frequently.It also examines risks and control objectives associated with change. It concludes that organizations often overlook proper change management techniques and can benefit by the ideas discussed in this article. Keywords-change management; software; IT I. INTRODUCTION"The only thing constant in life is change." This quote is attributed to the philosopher Heraclites of Ephesus and seems to be equally attributable to both organizations and to personal lives. The ability to manage change in both areas is very important.This paper provides an overview of change management in organizations, beginning with its definition and purpose. The importance aspects of a change management process are presented based on best practices in the field as described by two major organizations. There is also a section on risks and control objectives that presents information about risks and challenges associated with changes and change management processes related to databases, software development projects, and software product lines.The next section discussed two software packages that help companies manage their change management. The last section focused on the activities that can be used by an IT auditor to audit a company's change management procedures.In the process of completing this article, one important finding was the apparent absence from authoritative peerreviewed literature of detailed aspects of a typical change management process, and information on how the process works for all major systems; in particular operating systems and employee-provided personal computers. It seems as if the public discussion on change management, even by developers of change management software and IT companies, focuses more on the overall aspects, goals, and purposes instead of providing steps, scenarios, and consequences. The information is probably available somewhere but the sources are not readily available in the public domain for review. II. DEFINITION AND PURPOSEAccording to the Institute of Internal Auditors (IIA), a change management process is composed of steps and must include a formal set of procedures. The steps and procedures are necessary to manage changes, updates, or modifications throughout an organization and including its hardware and software systems [1].In a white paper about change management at Cisco Systems [2], the dependency of organizations in all industries on IT and a "highly available network" to meet their business objectives was highlighted. The document also described change management as "one of the most important service management processes" due to the large volume of changes any organization will undergo for a variety of reasons. These reasons could include accommodating new business requirements and correcting errors in d...
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