The Change Control process is the formal process that Teradata Customer Services uses to proactively manage a customer's SWI-entitled system. It ensures that an effective plan is developed, approved, scheduled, and executed to provide the customer with the highest availability and a minimum of interruptions to their processing schedule.
A Change Control incident is a critical component of the Change Control process. An incident is associated with a specific customer and planned change. Each incident associates specific customer and site information, a Change Control number, a Change Control plan, and status and approval information, as well as other documents related to the incident. The incident also includes information used by Teradata CS to track the activities associated with the incident and to maintain Customer Information records.
A Change Control incident must be created for all system changes. Content and management practices for the Change Control incident will vary depending on the SWI service level entitlement defined for the customer's system. Change Control incidents should be created a minimum of 28 days prior to the estimated implementation date. In an emergency situation, this requirement may be waived. A Change Control number is required for both CSR-performed upgrades and customer-executed upgrades and is required to download software for the upgrade.
Change Controls implemented for Business Critical or SWI-entitled systems include CSR consulting, Change Control plan preparation, software upgrade implementation, upgrade validation testing, as well as fallback and recovery planning. The plan includes activities to be performed by Teradata CS and the customer. The plan is reviewed by Teradata CS technical associates, and must be approved before the upgrade procedure begins.
Changes made to a system during an upgrade are tracked in the Customer Information System, associated with the Change Control number. This ensures Teradata Customer Services has an accurate record of each system configuration.