Use a concise change record when modifying a customer service in a way that affects availability, data, access or billing. The record should make the requested outcome and authorised scope clear to the operator and the next person supporting the service.
IN THIS ARTICLE
01 Prepare the change
- Identify the customer, affected service and exact resource. Verify the requester has authority for the proposed change.
- Describe the desired result and the actions needed to achieve it. Separate assumptions from confirmed information about the current state.
- Record expected impact, timing and dependencies. Identify whether the work changes recurring charges, domain settings, customer data or access permissions.
- Define the backup or recovery action appropriate to the scope. State what can be reversed and what would require data restoration or reconciliation.
- Choose acceptance checks that establish the intended result. Include an external test when the change affects a public website, DNS or email.
- Obtain the approval required by your operating process and the customer's existing service agreement. Keep the approval reference with the change record.
02 Execute and close the record
Before acting, confirm the live target matches the record and that no conflicting work is in progress. Note the start time and material actions. If the scope changes, reassess the impact and required authorisation before continuing.
After the change, run the acceptance checks, record the result and communicate any remaining action. Link related support tickets, provider cases and platform log references. Keep secrets out of the record while preserving enough detail to explain what happened.
For urgent incident work, use the organisation's emergency-change process. Record the reason for urgency and obtain the required retrospective review; urgency should not make the final evidence disappear.
Common questions
Does approval to investigate include approval to delete or reinstall?
Confirm the agreed scope. Diagnosis and destructive replacement have different consequences, and a general support request may not authorise loss of the existing data.
Do we need a long form for every routine edit?
Match the record to the consequence. A pre-approved routine procedure can use a short record that identifies the target, authorisation, result and any exception.