Overview

Scheduling and reviewing change requests is a difficult process for any size organization. Especially when it comes to ensuring that implementations are properly resourced and don't conflict with the many other changes going on in the organization. Intelligent Service Management provides Change Collision functionality to make identify overlapping changes much easier.

A collision occurs when two planned change request implementation schedules overlap. The change collision also detects if the same resources and assets/CIs are related to two or more change requests. Collisions are detected automatically. It helps analysts manage and resolve conflicts between change requests by providing visibility of the resources and related assets/CIs that are scheduled to be implemented at the same time. If multiple change requests overlap, resources to whom the requests are assigned may not be able to complete the work at the same time.

The Change Calendar also displays the change collision. The collision visibility helps analysts/administrators to modify or adjust the schedule accordingly to prevent conflicts. Collision detection also helps allocating resources efficiently eliminating conflicts.

When the Planned Start Date and Time and Planned End Date and Time specified for the 1st change request overlaps with one or more change requests, a collision occurs. The collision is displayed in the Change Collision section in the Change Request. The Change Collision section also displays the individuals, groups, assets, and CIs that are common in the other impacting Change Requests.

If the conflicting change requests are assigned to the same individual, it will be displayed in the Collision Individual column in the Change Collision section.
If the conflicting change requests are assigned to the same group, it will be displayed in the Collision Group column in the Change Collision section.
If the conflicting change requests are related to the same Assets/CIs, it will be displayed in the Collision Assets/CIs column in the Change Collision section.

Scenario

The schedule captured in the following example explains when a collision is detected. In this example, there is a collision in the schedule as well as group and assets except resources.

Change Requests	Planned Start Date and Time	Planned End Date and Time	Resource	Group	Assets/CI
1- Replacing hard disk	02/11/2018, 13:00	03/11/2018, 12:00	Mac	A	Laptop
2- Upgrading memory	02/11/2018, 12:30	02/11/2018, 14:00	John	A	Laptop

The Change Collision section displays the conflicting change request, the related assets, individuals, and groups based on the above example. You can double-click on the row to open the change request on a new tab.

Note

In case group-based security is enabled, if the user does not belong to the same group as the Change request creator or requestor, cannot open the ticket on a new tab.

Field Description

Below is a description of the columns shown within the change collision section.

Field	Description
Case#	Displays the ticket/change request number.
Planned Start Date	Displays the planned start date and time of the other change request.
Planned End Date	Displays the planned end date and time of the other change request.
Duration	Displays the collision in hours. This is calculated as the difference between the change plan period specified in the Planned Start Date and Planned End Date.
Collision Group	Displays the group name which are assigned to the change requests that collide. If the assigned to individual is a part of two different groups, one group being a part of the conflicting change requests, the resource name will appear in the Collision Individual column instead of the group name (in the Collision group).
Collision Individual	Displays the resource/individual name to whom the conflicting change requests are assigned. It occurs when two or more requests are assigned to one individual on the same schedule.
Collision Asset/CI	Displays as Yes, if the related assets/CIs are associated with the conflicting change requests. You can click on the link to view all related Assets/CIs that are common.

Related Asset/CI in Collision

The Assets/CIs associated with the conflicting change request are displayed in the Change Collision section. Clicking Yes displays the common assets/CIs in the Collision Asset/CI window.

Change Calendar

You can also view the change collision in the Change Calendar. You can filter the change requests on Days, Weeks, and Months, based on your requirement.

For more information about change calendar, refer to Approve or Reject a Change Request

To view the change collision, navigate to Workspace> Change Calendar

The Change Calendar displays the conflicting change request as shown above. The collision data is displayed in rows in the calendar, for the specific date when the conflict occurs. When you hover the mouse over the row, complete information about the change request is displayed. You can also click anywhere on the window to open the change request in another window.