# Change Management

## Introduction

The creation of new products as well as the modification of existing products is usually accompanied by a vast amount of papers that have to be filled in to describe the reason for the change, the affected objects etc. The Change Management module in Agile e6 replaces such paper based processes and adds a strict process management to changes.

Similar to the Workflow module, a Work Request and/or Work Order is created in order to describe and initiate changes. The Work Request is used to initiate a change process by describing the reason and purpose of an intended change. The Work Order is (typically) used to implement the changes. The approval/release of Work Request and Work Order can be controlled by Workflow. If demanded, the system can be configured in such a way, that it is not possible to create or modify objects that are not assigned to an available Work Order. There are different eligible changes (change operations), e.g. "Modify", "Replace 1:1" or "Version" that can be applied to single objects or relations. Change operations belong to a Work Request/Work Order and can be displayed in both a chronological or hierarchical order.

Every Work Order has a so-called "Work Set" which groups and controls change operations and the associated objects. The purpose of a Work Set is to release all affected objects at the same time when completing a Work Set. The release date of the Work Set (effectivity) will then be identical for the affected objects.

When creating Change Operations, the objects that are affected by the changes have to be defined. Also, the affected products (where the objects are used) can be identified. Affected products can either be selected manually or with the so-called "Change Impact Analysis". The Change Impact Analysis automatically executes a "where-used" query which then displays the affected products of the corresponding work order.

The Change Management module also enables the user to filter and display objects in different "version views" as e.g. "development" or "production" via the "view" settings. It is also subject to the "view" settings if preliminary records - objects that have been created under the control of the Change Management and that are (still) preliminary because the Work Request/Work Order is not yet confirmed - are displayed.

The following diagram depicts the architecture of the main objects in the Change Management module: