After setting up the Change and Release Management in SCSM 2016 this recipe will show you how to create a new Change Request and Release Record. Also, it will show you how to add links between these two management processes.
To create a new Change Request in SCSM 2016 open the console and navigate to Work Items | Change Management.
To create a new Release Record in SCSM 2016 open the console and navigate to Work Items | Release Management.
Follow these steps to create a new Change Request:
- Click on New Change Request in the Tasks pane.
- Choose Change Request Service Pack Installation Template, which we created in an earlier recipe in this chapter.
- Click on OK.
- As we provided a lot of the information already in the Change Request Template only a few things need to be added:
- Add the related computers to Config Items To Change. For instance, we will add Client1, Client2, Server1, Server2, and Server3 in this recipe. Click on Add and pick the computers from the list, then click on OK.
- Select Standard from the Impact drop-down box and Medium from the Risk drop-down box.
- Click on OK to close the form and create the Change Request.
Follow these steps to create a new Release Record:
- Click on New Release record in the Tasks pane.
- In the Select Template, choose the Release Record Template we created earlier in this chapter called Release Record Service Pack Installation Template.
- Click on OK.
- All the required information in the General tab is provided by the template.
- Click on the Release Package tab and add the related computers to Configuration Items to Modify. For instance, we will add Client1, Client2, Server1, Server2, and Server3 in this recipe. Click on Add and pick the computers from the list, then click on OK.
- In the Scheduling tab, provide the scheduled (planned) time information, planned work, and planned costs.
- In the Activities tab you can use the activities we added in the previous recipe or you can build your own activities for this specific release. We will start with a Dependent Activity to link a Change Request configured as follows:
- Change Request name:
Install Service PackAdd a Parallel Activity Container named "Install Service Pack" with the following two Manual Activities:
- Install Service Pack on x86 clients
- Install Service Pack on x64 clients
- We will then create a Sequential Activity container for this Change Request called:
- Install Service Pack on Servers
Containing the following Manual Activities:
- Install Service Pack on Server1
- Install Service Pack on Server2
- Install Service Pack on Server3
- Change Request name:
- You can add additional specific information to each activity you added, such as Impacted Configuration Items and Implementer.
- Right-click on the Dependent Activity and choose Link to Change Request Activity.
- Choose the Dependent Activity from the Change Request we created earlier in this recipe and click on OK.
- Click on OK in the Release Record form to close the form.
- After providing all the information in the Release Record select the Release Record we created, and click on Run in the Tasks pane and add a comment to start the release process. After the Release Record is started you can switch to the editing mode by clicking on Return to editing in the Tasks pane.
If you create a new Change Request based on a Change Request template, all pre-filled fields will be applied to the new Change Request object. You can modify or delete the template at any time. Also, the pre-defined activities within the template are added to the new Change Request. These activities can also be modified or deleted. Another option could be to skip activities once the actual Change Request has been created instead of deleting the activities from the template. To skip an activity, select the activity, right-click and choose Skip Activity from the context menu, enter a comment, and click on OK.
If you create a new Release Record based on a Release Record template the predefined fields of the template will be applied to the new Release Record. Similar to a Change Request you can modify or delete the pre-filled fields of the activities of the Release Record template. As in the Change Request, the activities can be modified, deleted, or skipped. To start a Release Record process, you need to click on Run in the Tasks pane and add a comment.
To combine different configuration items you can add this to Builds. For complex and large releases it can be helpful to use Parent/Child Release records.
Instead of adding each individual CI, which will be affected by the release record you can add the environments and/or the builds in the Release Package tab.
If a release is very complex you can use Parent/Child release records instead of creating a lot of different activities. This offers the option to split a complex release process into smaller pieces.
For instance, take a look at the following figure:
Providing the Scheduled Start and End Time of change requests, release records, and all the different activities and also, providing the Actual Start and End Time is very helpful for reporting on how the Change Management and Release Management processes are performing. These key performance indicators offer a good overview on how many change requests, release records, and activities are completed in the planned time.
To get more information about reporting please take a look at the recipes of Chapter 10, Working with the Data Warehouse and Reporting of this cookbook.
Microsoft TechNet Library: Managing Release Records in Service Manager: https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/system-center-docs/sm/manage/ops-managing-release-records-in-system-center-2016-service-manager.