Integrated change and configuration management

This paper provides a summary of the best-practice change-management and configuration-management processes that express a core which conforms to ITIL (R) and discusses how they are extended for the service provider domain. These custornizable processes, coupled with an execution platform and a configuration-management database, form the essence of the IBM Tivoli((R)) Change and Configuration Management Database (CCMDB)-the heart of the IBM strategy for information technology service management (ITSM). We provide an overview of ITSM best practices and present details of the best-practice processes developed by IBM for the CCMDB product. We also describe a number of insights gained from implementing these processes and discuss issues that are key to implementing them in a service provider environment.