ITIL establishes that the change advisory board (CAB) can manage a change provided that a request for change (RFC) has been notified in a formal, authoritative manner. The CAB members have no news in hand in advance of the RFC arrival. When change’s implementation demands a considerable effort there is no way to prearrange resources in time or take caution measures.

We believe this ITIL rule should be ameliorated and have found an interesting suggestion—the funnel model—in literature. We have tailored this model for ICT (information and communication technology) change management. The funnel model shows how a CAB member can receive official RFCs and also rumors, voices, possible RFCs that depict future, plausible scenarios. A forewarned CAB is capable of circumventing operational difficulties, peaks of work and bottlenecks.

The present paper describes a software prototype that embodies the funnel model. The initial test has shown the benefits and limitations of the present strategic proposal.

Author: Paolo Rocchi

IBM

Paolo Rocchi

Paolo Rocchi is an Emeritus Docent at IBM in recognition of his extraordinary scientific contribution and scholarship, and is a contract Professor at LUISS University of Rome. Currently he teaches and is leading researches in various areas of computer science and mathematics. In particular Rocchi is investigating software defect handling and the optimization of ICT change management.