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Managing change requests

A change request is a planned, usually extensive, change to a system. The purpose of a change request is to remove the cause of a problem.

Creating a Change Request

  1. Go to Matrix42 Software Asset and Service Management > Service Desk.
  2. In the navigation area, click Change Requests.
    A Change Request offers two views: a Grid View and a Calendar View. To switch between the two views, click CONFIGURE in the toolbar and select a View option.
  3. In the grid view: On the toolbar, click Add Change.
    In the calendar view: Mark a Time Period with your mouse. The Start (Planned) and End (Planned) dates of the new change request (Resource Planning dialog page) will be pre-filled with the marked period.
    A properties dialog opens. For detailed description of the Change dialog, refer to the the Change Dialog article in this User Guide. 
    change.jpg
  4. Enter detailed information about the change. Mandatory fields are marked as such in red.
    • Change Template: The selected change template sets some default attributes such as category, type of the change, responsible role, impact, and urgency. Besides, it defines the workflow that will be used for automatic processing of the change.
    • Type of Change: Type of the change (Standard, Non-Standard, or Emergency).
    • User: Person who reported the incident/change or the problem.
    • Summary: Brief description of the change.
    • Reported Per: Defines how the change was requested.

To Identify a Service Level Agreement

  1. Go to the General dialog page.
  2. Click the selection button next to Service Level Agreement.
    A selection window that opens contains only the Service Level Agreements, Operation Level Agreements and Underpinning Contracts that are valid for combination of the entries on the User, Priority, Asset, and Service fields. Click the Search without default filter link to turn off this filter.
    • Select a Service Level Agreement/Operation Level Agreement or an Underpinning Contract
      or
    • Click [Tightest SLA is available] APPLY to automatically select the Service Level Agreement/Operation Level Agreement or Underpinning Contract with the most critical solution times that corresponds to the combination of entries in the User, Priority, Asset, and Service fields.
  3. If already known, add further details about Risks and Resource Planning.
  4. Click DONE at the bottom to save and close. 

Creating a Change Request from an Incident

If you create a change from an incident, the information from the incident is automatically copied to the change. In addition, the incident is linked to the change and can be managed on the Incidents dialog page.

  1. Go to Matrix42 Software Asset and Service Management > Service Desk application.
  2. In the navigation area, click Incidents.
  3. If the required configuration item is not in the selection list, use Search to locate it.
  4. In the selection list, click an Incident. Preview opens.
  5. In the action pane, click Create Change. A properties dialog opens.
  6. Enter detailed information about the Change and select a Change Template. 
  7. Click DONE at the bottom to save and close. 

Agreeing a Change

When a new change request is created, it should be agreed by change management for further progress of the change. This operation sets the status of the change to Agreed and initiates the change workflow, which has been configured in the selected change template. After the workflow is initiated, the change template cannot be altered any more.

  1. Go to Matrix42 Software Asset and Service Management > Service Desk application.
  2. In the navigation area, click Change Requests.
  3. If the required configuration item is not in the selection list, locate it using Search.
  4. In the selection list, click a change. Preview opens.
  5. In the action pane, click Agree Change. An input wizard appears.
  6. Selected Change Template: Last time where it is possible to replace the selected change Template for processing another change workflow. 
  7. Click AGREE CHANGE.

Closing a Change

With the new change management process of Matrix42 Software Asset and Service Management, the changes will be closed automatically inside of a change workflow. But anyway you may need to close the change manually in some cases (e.g., the change is rejected by the change manager or retracted from the requester, etc.). Closing of the change also closes the related tasks and change approvals, and terminates the running workflow instances of the change.

When you close a recurring change, a copy of this change request with the same ticket ID and with the New status is created.

  1. Go to Matrix42 Software Asset and Service Management > Service Desk application.
  2. In the navigation area, click Change Requests.
  3. If the required configuration item is not in the selection list, use Search to locate it.
  4. In the selection list, click a change. Preview opens.
  5. In the action pane, click Close to open the input wizard.
  6. Enter detailed information that is related to closing the change, or select a KB article from which the solution should be copied.
  7. If desired, add one or several attachments to the ticket to provide further information.
    When you close several changes, the attachments will be the same for all selected changes.
  8. Click SPECIFY DETAILS.
  9. Set the final Category, Closing Reason, and meantime availability of affected assets and services.
    When you close several changes that have the same category, this category is pre-selected. When you close several changes that have different categories, the Category field will be empty.
  10. Select further options:
    • Inform users about the closing of the change: The user who requested the change will be notified by email that the ticket has been closed.
    • Inform related users about closing of the change: All users that are related to the change will be notified by email that the change has been closed.
    • Inform further users about the closing of the change: Additional users will be notified by email that the change has been closed.
    • Inform responsible users of related tickets about the closing of the change: All responsible users of the related tickets will be notified by email that the change has been closed.
    • Create KB Article: Creates a knowledge base article that describes the change.
  11. Click RELATED APPROVALS AND TASKS.
  12. Select the Closing Reason for open change approvals and open tasks (the page will be displayed only in case of running workflow instances, open tasks, or open approvals).
  13. If the change has any Related Problems, specify the Closing Options for the related problems.
  14. If the change has any Related Incidents, specify the Closing Options for the related incidents.
  15. Click CLOSE.
  16. If the Enable Automatic Time Tracking checkbox is selected under Service Desk > System Settings, the Track Working Time wizard will appear. If needed, adjust the time tracking options for the ticket, and then click CLOSE.

When you close several changes, the spent time will be proportionally shared among the tickets.

Managing Recurring Changes

It is possible to execute specific changes regularly. To define a schedule for such recurring changes:

  1. Go to Matrix42 Software Asset and Service Management > Service Desk application.
  2. In the navigation area, click Change Requests.
  3. Search for an existing change and click it, or create a new change by clicking Add Change on the toolbar.
  4. In the action pane, click Set Recurrency to open the wizard.
  5. Select one of the following recurrence patterns:
    • Daily: Specify the amount of days after which the ticket should recur.
    • Weekly: Specify the amount of weeks after which the ticket should recur and select specific weekdays on which the ticket should recur.
    • Monthly: Here you have two options:
      • The ticket should recur on a specific date of a specific amount of months, e.g., on the first day every second month.
      • The ticket should recur on a specific weekday of a specific amount of months, e.g., on the first Monday of every second month.
    • Yearly: Here you have two options:
      • The ticket should recur on a specific date of a specific month, e.g., every year on February 1.
      • The ticket should recur on a specific weekday of a specific month, e.g., on the first Monday of February.
  6. Select one of the following ranges of recurrence:
    • Start From: Specify the date on which the execution of the recurring ticket should start.
    • End Never: Select this option if there is no time limit for the recurring ticket.
    • After a Number of Occurrences... (0 Passed): Select this option to specify the number of instances for this ticket.
    • On Date: Select this option to specify the date after which execution of the recurring ticket should end.
  7. If the ticket no longer needs a regular schedule, select the Disabled checkbox.
  8. When ready, click SET RECURRENCY.
    As a result, the Resubmission date and time of the recurring ticket are displayed on the search page in the Resubmission column. You can also see how much time is left until Resubmission in Preview. 

Closing, Reopening and Deleting the Recurring Changes
When you close a recurring change, a copy of this change with the New status is created. When you reopen a recurring change, its recurrency is disabled, and the change instance is removed from the recurring series.
When you delete the newest recurring change, you will have the following options:

  • Delete this occurrence: Delete only the current instance of the recurring change and create the next instance.
  • Delete this occurrence and finish series: Delete the recurring change without the creation of the next instance.
  • Delete all occurrences of this series: Delete the recurring change and all of its instances.

When you delete any other recurring change, including the closed recurring changes, you will have the following options:

  • Delete this occurrence: Delete only the current instance of the recurring change and create the next instance.
  • Delete all occurrences of this series: Delete the recurring change and all of its instances.

Searching for Changes

To search for a specific change request:

  • Go to Matrix42 Software Asset and Service Management > Service Desk application.
  • In the navigation area, click Change Requests.
  • In the action pane, click Search Changes. An input wizard opens.
  • If you remember the summary of the change that you are looking for, enter it in the Text field. When you start the search in the context of a specific change, i.e. select the checkbox next to the change on the search page, the Text field is pre-filled.
  • If the change has any related assets and/or services, select them in the corresponding fields.
  • If you remember the subject, category, ID, state, and status reason of the change, enter this information into the corresponding fields.
  • Select whether you want to use all your search criteria or just one of them (AND/OR), and then click Search.
  • If your search query has matching results, they will appear below, with links to the found change(s). When you start the search in the context of a specific change, you can attach the search results to this change by selecting them and clicking the Attach Changes button.
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