PREVENTING OUTAGES FROM "ROUTINE" CHANGES

Most outages aren’t caused by attackers. They’re caused by well-meaning changes deployed without enough review.

You don’t need enterprise ITIL bureaucracy. You need just enough process to catch risky changes before they go live – one that’s light enough that engineers actually follow it.

The scenario:

You need a change management process that’s rigorous enough to prevent incidents but light enough that engineers actually follow it.

The prompt:

You’re creating a change management SOP.

Build a process that includes:

– Change classification (standard, normal, emergency) with criteria

– Required information for change requests

– Approval workflow by change type and risk level

– Testing and rollback requirements

– Communication templates for clients and internal teams

– Post-change verification steps

Keep it practical. If it’s too heavy, nobody will use it.