What is Change Enablement?

Change enablement is the ITIL 4 practice that maximizes the number of successful IT changes by checking that risks are assessed accurately, authorizing changes to proceed and managing the change schedule. It is the ITIL 4 successor to the change management process in earlier editions.

What is change enablement in ITIL 4?

Change enablement is one of the 17 service management practices in ITIL 4, which describes 34 management practices in total (SmartSuite ITIL 4 framework page). PeopleCert, which owns ITIL, describes the aim as maximizing the number of successful service and product changes, with accurate risk assessment, change authorization and change scheduling (ITIL 4 Practitioner: Change Enablement, PeopleCert).

What are the types of change?

Most teams sort changes into three types, so each gets the amount of scrutiny its risk calls for. SmartSuite's Change Management page uses the same three classes.

Type	When it applies	How it is handled
Standard change	A routine, low-risk change that is well understood and repeatable	Pre-authorized, so it proceeds without a fresh approval each time
Normal change	A change that is not routine and carries risk worth assessing	Assessed for risk and impact, then approved by the right change authority before it is scheduled
Emergency change	An urgent change, for example to restore service during a major incident	Fast-tracked with a shorter approval path, then documented and reviewed afterward

Who approves a change?

ITIL 4 uses the term change authority for whoever is accountable for authorizing a change. The authority can be a person, a team such as a change advisory board (CAB), or an automated rule, depending on the risk.

How does change enablement work?

• Submit. A change request records what will change, why, and which services and assets it touches.
• Assess. The team evaluates risk and impact, using configuration data such as a CMDB to see what depends on the item.
• Authorize. The change authority approves, rejects or asks for more detail.
• Schedule and implement. A change calendar avoids conflicts between changes, then the team carries out the work.
• Review. The team checks the outcome, closes the record and feeds failures back into problem management.

Why does change enablement matter?

• It lowers the chance that a change causes an incident, because risk is assessed before work starts.
• It keeps delivery moving, because routine changes are pre-approved and only risky ones wait for review.

How is it different from change management?

Earlier ITIL editions described this work as the change management process, and ITIL 4 frames it as the change enablement practice. Organizational change management is a different discipline, about helping people adopt new ways of working. The SmartSuite page on change management in ITSM covers the broader process view, and this page covers the ITIL 4 practice.

Related terms

• Change management in ITSM
• ITIL
• IT service management (ITSM)
• Incident management
• Problem management
• CMDB

In SmartSuite

SmartSuite's Change Management product covers change request management, change classification as Standard, Normal or Emergency, approval workflows, risk and impact assessment, a change calendar and implementation tracking. It sits inside the IT service management solution, and the ITIL 4 framework page shows how the practices map.

Frequently asked questions

Is change enablement the same as change management?

In IT service management the two terms describe closely related work: ITIL 4 calls the practice change enablement, and many teams still call it change management. Organizational change management is a different discipline, about how people adapt to change rather than how technical changes are authorized.

Does every change need a change advisory board?

No. A CAB is one kind of change authority, and ITIL 4 lets the authority be a person, a team or an automated rule. Standard changes are pre-authorized and skip the review, so a CAB usually sees only the high-risk normal changes.

Can you be certified in change enablement?

Individuals can. PeopleCert offers ITIL 4 Practitioner: Change Enablement, a closed-book exam of 20 multiple-choice questions in 30 minutes with a 65 percent pass mark, and the credential renews every three years. Organizations are not certified against ITIL.

Conclusion

Change enablement lets IT teams say yes to change quickly by matching the amount of review to the risk. Start by defining your standard changes and your change authorities, then tighten the schedule and review steps as the records build up.