Creating and submitting an RFC

When you create a Request for Change (RFC) through the Process Requests application, you specify information about the requested Change that enables a Change Owner to evaluate whether it will be accepted or rejected. To create an RFC, you must have the appropriate permissions to create and submit a process request.

1. Open the Process Requests application (Go To > Change > Process Requests).
2. Click to create a new process request.

   The fields in the User Information section are populated with your user information, if that data is available. In addition, the Reported Date field is populated with the date and time at which you opened the new the process request. The Reported Date is displayed in your time zone; when the Change is viewed by a user in a different time zone, the Reported Date is shown in the time zone of that user.

3. In the Process Request Details section, complete the following steps:
   1. Type a description of the RFC in the Description field; click if you want to supply additional information.
   2. Enter values in the Impact, Urgency, and Priority fields to indicate your initial assessment of these values for the requested Change. Your initial impact and urgency suggestions might be modified when the Change is authorized. Fill in these fields as follows:
      • In the Impact field, specify a number from 1 to 5 to indicate your estimate of the amount of disruption that will occur as a result of this Change. Impact is based on the business benefits of implementing the Change, or on the degree of damage or cost caused by the error that the Change will correct. This specification enables Change Owners to balance the need for the Change with its expected impact. A value of 1 specifies the most critical impact; 5 indicates the lowest impact.
      • Specify a number from 1 to 5 in the Urgency field, which indicates your estimate of the current necessity for this Change. The urgency is based on how long the Change implementation can afford to be delayed. A value of 1 specifies the highest urgency; 5 indicates the lowest urgency.
      • Type a value in the Priority field to indicate the priority of the Change. Use a numeric value that you have established an a priority indicator. For example, you might want to type 1 to indicate the highest priority, 4 to indicate the lowest priority. The priority of a Change is derived from the agreed impact and urgency.
   3. Click beside the Process Manager Type field, and click Change.
   4. Specify a customer in the Customer field if you are creating this RFC on behalf of a customer. Use the following guidelines to specify a customer:
      • You can select the customer in the Customer field. No CI, asset, or location values are brought in when you select a customer, because customers have multiple CIs, assets, and locations.
      • Rather than selecting the customer in the Customer field, you can specify a CI that is associated with a customer. If you do so, the Customer field is populated with that customer.
      • You can also specify an asset that is primarily associated with a customer. Doing so brings in the customer if no customer-specific CI has been specified.
      • Similarly, if no customer-specific CI or asset is specified, you can specify a location; the primary customer for that location is brought into the Customer field.
      • The system looks first at the CI, second at the asset, and third at the location before bringing in a customer.
   5. Click the beside the Site field to select the site.
   6. Click beside the Requested Completion field. In the calendar, specify the date you want the request completed, and click OK. The requested completion date is displayed in your time zone; when the RFC is viewed by a user in a different time zone, the date is shown in the time zone of that user.
4. (Optional, if your administrator has set up response plans for use with process requests) After specifying a few key attributes of the RFC, select the Apply Response Plan action to apply a response plan. A response plan can supply an owner or owner group, or other information that is defined for the response plan. After you apply a response plan to the request, the system finds a plan that matches the attributes you have specified.

   To read more about how response plans work, see "Managing response plans."

5. In the Request Classification Details section, click beside the Classification field, and select Classify to select a classification that describes the overall purpose of the Change that you are requesting.

   For example, you can select PMCHGHDW if the change involves hardware, or PMCHGSFW for general software changes. For more specific hardware or software changes that have classifications defined, you can select a classification that is nested under PMCHGHDW or PMCHGSFW, such as PMCHGWDW/DSKTOPS (desktops) or PMCHGSWF_MWINSTALL (middleware installation).

   After you specify a classification, any extended classification attributes are displayed in the Classification Attributes section, where you can supply attribute values for auditing and planning purposes. Classification attributes help you capture information that is necessary for efficiently processing a Change.

6. In the Target CIs section, click Select > CIs, and select the CIs that will be affected by the requested Change. Click OK to specify the selected CIs as targets of the Change.

   When selecting a CI, you can launch target CI field to the Configuration Items application and inspect CI topology views; if you select a CI in the topology, you can return to the Changes application with the selected CI in the field. You can also select a CI from a list of available CIs.

7. Click Save.
8. Click to submit the request.

What to do next

Note: When you click Submit, the Process Requests application starts the submit master work flow. If there are any user prompts or messages shown, click the Route Workflow icon to complete the workflow interaction.

For more information about the workflow, consult the online helps in the Workflow Administration and Workflow Designer applications (Go To > System Configuration > Platform Configuration > Workflow Administration, Workflow Designer.

After you submit the request, correct any errors that are displayed by the submit workflow. If necessary, resubmit the request.

After you successfully submit the request, its Process State is SUBMITTED. The RFC is displayed in the start center of a Change Owner who is responsible for evaluating RFCs and accepting or rejecting them. You are notified when the request is accepted or rejected.