Change Management is responsible for managing Change processes involving hardware, communications equipment and software, system software, 'live' applications software, and all documentation and procedures associated with the running, support and maintenance of live systems.

Change Management is the practice of ensuring all changes to Configuration Items are carried out in a planned and authorised manner. This includes ensuring that there is a business reason behind each change, identifying the specific Configuration Items and IT Services affected by the change, planning the change, testing the change, and having a backout plan should the change result in an unexpected state of the Configuration Item.

Change Management covers all changes to production IT services. A good change model will cater for changes at the smallest pre-approved level right through to major outages on enterprise systems. By prioritising a change request it can be sent down the agreed workflow and the appropriate people are informed. Sound Change Management can help reduce incidents.

The goal of the Change Management process is to ensure that standardized methods and procedures are used for efficient and prompt handling of all Changes, in order to minimize the impact of Change-related Incidents upon service quality, and consequently to improve the day-to-day operations of the organization.

It is the Change Management process that produces approval (or otherwise), for any proposed Change. Note also that it is Configuration Management who is responsible for ensuring that information regarding the possible implications of a proposed Change is made available, and that possible impacts are detected and presented appropriately.

Change Management is not responsible for identifying components affected by Change or updating Change records (the domain of Configuration Management), nor is it responsible for the Release of new or changed components (the domain of Release Management).

The need for Change Management is clearest where there is anarchy and continually disrupted services for non-explicit and unplanned changes.