Change Management Process (Part 3)

Associated blogs

Change Management Introduction

Teamcenter Change Management

Change Management Process

1. Author a problem report (PR).

1. Any user in the system is given access to report a problem. The user reporting the problem is called as requestor.

2. PR is created after problem identification or for enhancement request.

3. Requester can also provide preliminary assessment like

4. where & when the problem is identified

5. how to reproduce the issue

6. what is the problem item, they can associate the defect/problem item to PR for analyzes

7. add document or images to support their claim

2. Approve a problem report

1. Once the problem is reported by an user, next step is to analyze and validate the information provided and take a decision whether the reported defect/issue is actually a problem.

2. Change specialist is responsible for this step. They assign priority to each problem report and assigns PR to an analyst for technical review.

3. Change specialist or Analyst does the review and they either approve or reject the PR.

4. On rejection of PR, PR is closed with disposition as rejected.

5. If they need additional/missing information for review, they send the PR back to requestor/PR creator asking for specific details.

6. On confirmation of the problem, they approve the PR with disposition as Approved which allows them to create ECR.

3. Create an Engineering Change Request (ECR)

1. Once the PR is approved by change specialist, the next step is to derive Engineering change request (ECR).

2. ECR is usually created by Analyst associated with the problem report.

3. At the stage, the analyst develops a solution or several alternate solutions. They does this by creating markups on documents.

4. No decisions are made at this stage like whether to proceed the process or what new items to be created or what items are to be revised.

5. A ECR can address more than one PR, same way more than one ECR can be derived for a PR.

6. In some business, Creation & Approval of PR is skipped and they directly start the change management process with creation of ECR.

4.Evaluate the impacts

1. Like PR, after creation of ECR the ECR is assigned to an analyst by change specialist.

2. Role of analyst here is to find the impacts of making this change. In addition to identifying the impacted items by this change, they also prepare supporting documentation.

3. Analyst prepares a high-level proposal for the action required to implement the change.

5. Make a business decision

1. Once all the impacts has been identified, the next step is to make a business decision whether implementing this change is beneficial for the company or not.

2. Change review board (CRB) is formed who reviews the ECR with all the information required to take the decision. Change Specialist submits the ECR to a Change Review Board.

3. The CRB can approve the CR, reject the CR or ask for addition investigation to change specialist.

4. In case, if they decide this CR has to go for fast track, the CRB approve the CR to move to execute change step (step number 10).

5. At this stage, a decision is made about whether to revise or create new items, according to the form, fit and function and interoperability.

6. Disposition value:

7. If the ECR is deferred, it is placed on hold.

8. If the ECR is rejected, it is closed.

9. If the ECR is not ready, it is sent for rework and returns to the CRB review step.

6.Derive an Engineering Change Notice (ECN)

1. On approval of ECR, the analyst of ECR derives a Engineering Change Notice (ECN) from ECR or associate an existing ECN to ECR.

2. Change Notice is created to address the approved change request and addresses the implementation details of the change.

3. One ECN can address multiple change request or multiple ECNs can be created to one ECR. It depends on how to implement the identified change.

4. An ECN is always derived to implement a solution, even for an ECN that went through a fast track process.

5. The workflow for the fast track ECN is very short, with minimal number of steps.

6. It is necessary to create an ECN so the analyst can add solution items, which is not possible in the ECR, whose purpose is only to define a proposed solution.

7. Prepare an implementation plan

1. Next step is to develop a detailed plan to address the set of approved ECRs addressed by the ECN.

2. This stage is done by Analyst.

3. The analyst develops a solution or several alternative solutions. The analyst does this by creating markups on documents, Word documents, presentations, and so on.

4. No decision has been made at this stage about whether to proceed or what new items or item revisions may be required.

8. Approve the ECN

1. Change Implementation Board (CIB) reviews the plan to address the change.

2. If more planning is required, CIB rejects the ECN. The assigned analyst completes the planning and the ECN returns to the CIB to determine if planning is complete.

3. Approval of ECN is informal step in fast tracking process and may just require the change specialist approval.

9. Assign an effectivity

1. Change specialist assigns effectivities to the ECN.

2. The effectivities specifies the timing of when the change takes effect.

10.Execute the change

1. If the ECN is approved, the assigned resources like designer, engineers implements the change according to the plan.

2. They edit the models according to the engineer's directions as documented in the ECR.

3. The design changes are approved as part of the process.

4. The analyst tracks the detailed plan for addressing the change.

5. Change specialist also tracks the implementation progress at a high level.

11. Close the change

1. The analyst/change specialist closes the change after it is implemented successfully.

2. When all the actions associated with each level of the implementation plan are complete, a change specialist closes the change.