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Optimization Model for IT Change Management

Today’s enterprises face the challenge of managing large, complex information technology (IT) systems consisting of software applications, servers, network routers, and other type of resources. Change management, and especially change scheduling, is known to be one of the most challenging problems in managing IT operations. Change scheduling must comply with strict availability Service Level Agreements (SLAs) and tackle complex IT environments. Various challenges arise from complex IT component dependencies, unpredictable durations of work processes, and large volume of concurrent changes and affected IT components. In this chapter, we address the problem of optimal IT change scheduling. We illustrate how the optimization problem can be formulated and solved using a mixed integer programming technique so that IT change management practitioners can efficiently schedule large change volumes and determine schedules that are robust to uncertainty in durations and costs with lower risks of SLA violations.