Standard changes

Templates on the Changes page lists the standard change templates: work done often, the same way, with little risk, like renewing a certificate or adding a user to the VPN. A template has the service, the plans, what customers notice and the steps, and is approved itself by a Change Manager or Change Approver who didn't write it. Its approval holds for a year; then it is suspended until approved again.

Use on an approved template asks only for the window. The change is pre-approved, so it is scheduled at once, as long as the window isn't in a freeze (and is inside the services' windows, or has a reason). Its plans are the template's: change the template, not the change. Each standard change records the template version it came from, so an auditor can see the pre-approval was valid that day.

A template whose changes failed twice is suspended. Editing a template makes a new version, which is approved again before it can be used; every version and every approval is kept on the template.