Reference no: EM133138977

ICTSAS529 Prioritise ICT Change Requests

Assessment Task: Skills Test

Skills Test:
This assessment task requires the student to analyse and prioritise change requests as part of managing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems that undergo continual change. It includes:
• Review and prioritise change requests
• Develop a change analysis work plan on at least one occasion
• Document processes and finalised work plan.
To do so, you must complete the following activities:
• Activity 1: Prepare to prioritise change requests
• Activity 2: Determine priority settings
• Activity 3: Develop change analysis work plan

Case Study:
Problem Statement
Suppose the students and staff is facing issues such as lack of integration, inflexible reporting capabilities, slow processing of LMS web pages while operating learning management system (LMS) software. Your organisationdecides to install and upgrade its LMS software with new features for their students. The upgraded LMS software should be able to solve the integration and reporting problems.

You are working as a technical advisor in the organisation. Your organisation wants you to analyse and prioritise change requests for upgrading the LMS software as part of managing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems that undergo continual change.
To do so, you will need to review the existing LMS software of the organisation and prioritise the change requests accordingly. After reviewing the entire LMS, you will develop a change analysis work plan for adding new features and resolving the integration issues. At the end of the assessment, you will document processes required for integrating and upgrading LMS and finalised work plan from your supervisor.

Organisation Requirements
To analyse and prioritise change requests of LMS software as part of managing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems that undergo continual change, you are required to fulfil the following organisation requirements:
1. Review the existing LMS software of the organisation and find the gaps in the features where improvement can be made.
2. Add new features to engage multimedia elements for adding video, audio contents, interactive modules and gamification tools to motivate and encourage the learner.
3. To make an effective assessment system, add the following features in the upgraded software:
• Quiz And Exam Question Banks
• Adaptive Quizzes And Responses
• Certification Capabilities
• Features Discussion Boards
4. Before upgrading, backup your existing software to save the old features of LMS software.
5. To discuss the material with one another, encourage interaction in real-time with live chat options.
6. For access to multi-users at a time, upgrade the LMS to support it overall OSs such as Linux, macOS, windows etc.
7. Upgrade the software to support any browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, safari etc.

You are working as a technical advisor in the organisation. The management of the organisation wants you to analyse and prioritise change requests for LMS software as part of managing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems that undergo continual change. This includes:
• review and prioritise change requests for LMS software.
• develop a change analysis work plan for upgrading the software
• document processes and finalised work plan.
System Requirements

The minimum system requirements are:
• Access to proper internet connection
• Your system should contain any internet browser, either Mozilla Firefox or Google Chrome or Safari compatible with HTML5
• Either Windows 10 or higher version or Linux OS with the latest updates should be installed
Software tools required
• Dropbox paper
• Google Docs
• Microsoft Word Online
Select any one change management tool:
• Whatfix
• StarTeam by MicroFocus
• BMC Remedy Change Management 9

Organisation Policies and procedures
The complexity, time, cost, and resources required to upgrade the software will depend on various factors, including whether your site has been customised-either via plug-ins, with changes to the core system, or by integration with another system.

1. Identify And Engage Your Stakeholders
Keep in mind that both internal and external stakeholders should be considered. End users, trainers, content developers, administrators, support and hosting teams, QA and testing teams, system owners, external suppliers, and service partners are among the people who work on the project. Determine how each group interacts with the system, how an upgrade will impact them, and how much continuing participation they may demand.

2. Undertake Change Control Planning
Aside from the technical labour needed in upgrading your system, effective change control will most likely be the most difficult aspect of the process. It can be difficult to strike a balance between proper communication and consultation and overwhelming stakeholders with information. Consider appointing a dedicated Change Control Manager to the process, with the role's deliverables including the creation of a communication plan and (at the very least) a high-level project plan.

3. Perform A Site Review
Performing a site evaluation entails taking inventory of any and all site customisations. Identify all bespoke developments and collect all applicable specifications and documents. Examine each development to see if it needs to be upgraded or re-implemented.
• Is this customisation included in the core system, or is it a plug-in?
• Is this (or anything similar) a new feature in the latest software version?
• Is this feature's current development or business necessity still relevant?
• Is your software compatible with other systems or programmes?

4. Establish Upgrade Requirements
• Based on your site review, do you need to re-develop customisations and integrations or upgrade bespoke plug-ins?
• Is there anything you need to account for in terms of past data from those customisations?
• Is it possible to update from your current version to the latest version of the software, or do you need to upgrade to a more recent version first?
• Check the new software's technical specifications-do you need to upgrade, install, or buy anything as part of the upgrade?
• Is it necessary (or desirable) to upgrade your theme/design as well, or will it operate with the upgraded version?

5. Make An Upgrade Plan
• Who will be in charge of the upgrade?
• What should be upgraded?
• What is in need of redevelopment?
• Is there anything that has to be developed from scratch?
• What method will be used to upgrade the system?
• Is there any advice from the programme vendor on how to upgrade?
• What resources, time, people, and money will you need to complete the upgrade?

6. Make A Roll-Out Plan

• When is the upgrade going to happen?
• Is there going to be a power outage?
• How long do you think it'll take?
• What kind of communication should be sent to stakeholders?
• What will the implementation procedure entail?
• What are your plans for reversing the decision?

7. Back up everything
Store that backup somewhere very safe and secure. Backup again, and store that file somewhere else safe and secure.
8. Run A Trial Upgrade
The simplest approach to find out if there will be any problems during the upgrade is to upgrade a replica of the live site. It will reveal any code and/or database conflicts and areas where more work is required. It's critical to give this stage plenty of time and to consult with relevant parties.

9. Upgrade A Staging Site
Trying to upgrade a duplicate of the live site is the easiest approach to see whether there will be any issues during the upgrade. It will reveal any code and/or database conflicts and areas where additional work is needed. It's critical to give this stage plenty of time and to consult with all key stakeholders.

10. Perform Testing
This includes functional, non-functional and technical testing, quality assurance, data integrity, security, performance, and theme/design testing including browser, and device testing. Vital to the testing process is a shared mechanism for capturing and tracking issues.
Issues should be stated in detail, assigned to someone until they are fully resolved, and given a unique identifier for tracking purposes. Allowing time for user acceptance testing is equally vital in managing expectations. While an improved system may be functional, it may not meet all of the business criteria designed for it.

11. Prepare Documentation
The success of your present upgrade, as well as any future upgrades, depends on the preparation of help files or user guides, as well as technical documentation documenting any unique developments or deployment needs. Use any documentation provided by the software vendor or your technology provider to highlight the differences between versions to emphasise the new release's most essential changes.

12. Provide Training
Proper training resources and adequate preparation are required to train the right individuals at the right time. Trainers and trainees must be available at the same time and at the same location. The end-user facing functionality and feature changes in your upgraded programme will determine the amount, nature, and duration of training. For some pointers on how to choose a training provider, click here.

13. Prepare Your Infrastructure
If your upgrade introduces a number of significant changes or you are timing the software upgrade with a re-release of the system, you will need to ensure your hosting setup will be able to cope with an increase in access and usage-if only for a short period of time.

14. Go Live
You have a few go-live alternatives, including a complete switchover or running the old and new systems in parallel for a period of time. Return to your release plan to ensure that everyone understands their role and responsibilities.

15. Perform An Upgrade Review
After an upgrade is released, there will almost certainly be a spike in demand for support resources as users become used to the new system. New system features and capabilities and changes in processes and rules may necessitate modifications to continuing support. Ensure that the support team has enough documentation, training, and coverage prior to the update release to meet demand.

Procedure
Change Management refers to a formal process for making changes to IT systems. Change management aims to increase awareness and understanding of proposed changes across an organisation and ensure that all changes are made in a thoughtful way that minimises negative impact to services and customers.
Change management generally includes the following steps:
• Planning: Plan the change, including the implementation design, schedule, communication plan, test plan, and roll back plan.
• Evaluation: Evaluate the change, including determining the risk-based in priority level of service and the nature of the proposed change, determining the change type and the change process to use.
• Review: Review change plan with peers and/or Change Advisory Board as appropriate to the change type.
• Approval: Obtain approval of the change by management or other appropriate change authority as determined by change type.
• Communication: Communicate about changes with the appropriate parties (targeted or campus-wide). ? Implementation: Implement the change.
• Documentation: Document the change and any review and approval information.
• Post-change review: Review the change with an eye to future improvements.

Organisation Policy
All Changes to IT services must follow a structured process to ensure appropriate planning and execution.
By organisation definition, there are three types of changes:
a) Standard Change
b) Normal change (of low, medium, or high risk)
c) Emergency Change.
Each Change Authority must establish an appropriate complete change management process commensurate with the authorised type of change.

a) Standard Change - A repeatable change that has been pre-authorised by the Change Authority by means of a documented procedure that controls risk and has predictable outcomes.
b) Normal Change - A change that is not an Emergency change or a Standard change. Normal changes follow the defined steps of the change management process. According to the Risk Assessment Instrument, low, medium, or High priority is determined by the supervisor or delegates.
• Normal Low Changes must be reviewed and approved by the supervisor or delegate as Change Authority.
• Normal Medium Changes must be reviewed and approved by the Change Advisory Board as Change Authority.
• The IT Executive Team must approve normal High changes as Change Authority.
c) Emergency Change - A change that must be introduced as soon as possible due to likely negative service impacts. There may be fewer people involved in the change management process review, and the change assessment may involve fewer steps due to the urgent nature of the issue; however, any Emergency Change must still be authorised by a manager and reviewed by the Change Advisory Board retroactively.

Task conditions
• This assessment task aims to analyse and prioritise change requests as part of managing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems that undergo continual change.
• This assessment task will be completed in your training organisation's IT lab. Your trainer/assessor will supervise you in performing this assessment task.
• The student will work as a technical advisor in the organisation.
Task Instructions:

• The student willanalyse and prioritise change requests as part of managing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems that undergo continual change.
• The student will create work plan using recommended writing tools.
• The student will suggest new innovative ideas for adding new features in the LMS software.

Task:

This assessment task requires the student to analyse and prioritise change requests as part of managing Information and Communications Technology (ICT) systems that undergo continual change. It includes:
• Review and prioritise change requests
• Develop a change analysis work plan on at least one occasion
• Document processes and finalised work plan.
To do so, you must complete the following activities:
• Activity 1: Prepare to prioritise change requests
• Activity 2: Determine priority settings
• Activity 3: Develop change analysis work plan

Task Environment:

This assessment task will be completed in a simulated environment prepared by your training organisation.

The simulated environment will provide you with all the required resources (such as the equipment and participants, etc.) to complete the assessment task. The simulated environment is very much like a learning environment where a student can practice, use and operate appropriate industrial equipment, techniques, and practices under realistic workplace conditions.
The roles and responsibilities of the Technical Advisor are:
• To identify organisational change request recording methods, policies and procedures
• To identify and document change requests according to organisational policies and procedures
• To classify and prioritise change requests according to service level agreements (SLAs) and organisational requirements
• To identify organisational business continuity risks
• To prioritise identified risks and determine risk reduction change implementation hierarchy
• To evaluate costs, benefits and timing of change implementation according to organisational requirements
• To schedule and document change analysis according to organisational requirements
• To submit document to required personnel, seek and respond to feedback
• To identify change requests
• To determine and document systems impact and organisation of methodology and timing of change
• To determine and document change plan and include required change development resources
• To submit documentation to required personnel and seek and respond to feedback
• To obtain the final task sign off

Roles and responsibilities of trainer/supervisor are:
• To provide a web server and client and business requirement specifications to the student.
• To provide special-purpose tools, equipment and materials for the change request to the student
• To provide the system with an active internet connection for prioritising ICT change requests.
• To provide sites on which change requests may be coordinated.
• To assist the students in carrying out the assessment.
• To provide industry-standard SLAs used in the organisation for the assessment.

Activity 1: Prepare to prioritise change requests.
This part of the activity requires you to prepare to prioritise change requests by identifying their recording methods, policies, and procedures.
Description of the activity
This activity requires you to prepare to prioritise change requests by identifying the organisation's recording methods, policies, and procedures. Then document the change requests.
To do so, you need to perform the following steps:
Step 1: Identify and analyseorganisational change request recording methods, policies and procedures. Document the details using Template 1.
• Scope of change request
• Determine the impact of incorporating the change
• General Information
• Plan to incorporate change request
Step 2: Identify and analyse the change requests and record them in a document according to organisational policies and procedures using Template 1.
Step 3: Classify and prioritise change requests based upon importance and level of risk according to service level agreements (SLAs) and organisational requirements.
• Customised options
• Data-driven
• Course catalogue based
Step 4: Record the step 3 details in a document using Template 1.

Preparation for prioritising change request (in 300-400 words)
1. Introduction to change request for LMS software
2. Recording methods for change requests
3. Organisational requirements for Change request of LMS software
4. Classify change requests (if required)
5. Assign priorities to the change request

Activity 2: Determine priority settings.
This part of the activity requires you to determine priority settings by identifying organisational business continuity risks and prioritising the identified risks related to LMS software.
Description of the activity
This activity requires you to determine priority settings by identifying organisational business continuity risks and prioritising the identified risks related to LMS software. You are also required to evaluate costs, benefits and timing of change implementation according to organisational requirements.
To do so, you need to perform the following steps:
Step 1: Research and identify organisational business continuity risks related to existing LMS software
Step 2: Prioritise the identified risks based upon the level of risk and determine the risk reduction change implementation hierarchy for identified risks.
Step 3: Record the details of Step 2 in a document using Template 2.
Step 4: Evaluate costs required to upgrade the software, benefits and timing required for change implementation according to the requirements of the organisation. Prepare a document containing costs, benefits and timing requirements using Template 3.
Step 5: Schedule the changes required and document the change analysis plan according to organisational requirements using Template 4.

Template 2: Prioritisation of risks
1. List of identified risks
2. Assign priorities to identified risks based upon risk level
3. Draw and explain the risk reduction change implementation hierarchy

Template 3: Cost, Benefit and Timing (CBT) details
1. Cost evaluation to upgrade the software
2. Benefits of upgrading the LMS software
3. Time required to upgrade the software

Template 4: Change analysis plan
1. Demonstrate the reasons for the change
2. Scope of the change request
3. Identify stakeholders and the change management team
4. Expected benefits
5. Milestones as well as costs required
6. Feedback comments from supervisor

Activity 3: Develop change analysis work plan.
This part of the activity requires you to develop a change analysis work plan by identifying change requests and documenting the impact and organisation of the system of methodology and timing of the change.
Description of the activity
This activity requires you to develop a change analysis work plan by identifying change requests and documenting the impact and organisation of the system of methodology and timing of the change. You are also required to document the change plan, include required change development resources, and seek feedback from your supervisor.
To do so, you need to perform the following steps:

Step 1: Identify change requests for upgrading the LMS software, determine and document systems impact and organisation of methodology and timing of change for each request in a document using Template 5.
• New features to engage multimedia elements for adding video, audio contents
• Interactive modules
• Gamification tools
• Quiz And Exam Question Banks
• Adaptive Quizzes And Responses
• Certification Capabilities
• Features Discussion Boards
• Backup your existing software data
• Live chat options
Step 2: Determine and prepare documentation for change plan using Template 5 and include required change development resources
• Check functionality over different browsers
• Support for Linux OS and macOS
Step 3: Submit documentation to your supervisor and seek and respond to feedback in a document using Template 6.
Step 4: Obtain final task sign off from your supervisor

Template 5: Change plan document
1. Introduction
2. Scope of plan
3. Change management approach or methodology
4. Features to be added to upgrade the software
5. Support for multiple browsers and different OS
6. Expected timing required for change management
7. Ideas for upgrading the software
8. Approval from supervisor

Attachment:- Prioritise ICT Change Requests.rar