This policy establishes a simple but formal process for managing all changes to your IT systems. Its goal is to prevent unexpected outages and security issues by ensuring every change is properly planned, tested, approved, and documented.
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Prevent Unplanned Downtime: Avoid service disruptions by implementing a structured approval and testing process for all system updates.
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Ensure Changes are Reversible: Require documented rollback plans for high-risk changes, so you can quickly recover if something goes wrong.
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Improve Accountability: Maintain a clear Change Log to track who requested, approved, and implemented every change for full audit traceability.
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Manage Emergency Changes Safely: Provides a clear process for handling urgent fixes immediately while ensuring they are properly documented and reviewed afterward.
Read Full Overview
The Change Management Policy for SMEs is designed to provide a comprehensive framework that governs the initiation, approval, implementation, and review of changes across IT systems and business processes. This policy is crafted to cater to the specific needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs), ensuring that even organizations with limited resources can maintain robust change control mechanisms. At its core, the policy aims to prevent unplanned downtime and mitigate security risks by ensuring all changes are meticulously documented, tested, and approved before execution. One of the standout features of this policy is its alignment with ISO/IEC 27001:2022 standards, particularly focusing on ensuring operational resilience and security during change activities. Emphasizing the importance of audit readiness, the policy requires maintaining a detailed Change Log, capturing every proposed change, its outcome, and any lessons learned. This not only supports compliance audits but also drives continual improvement within the organization.
What's Inside
- Change Request & Approval Process
- Risk & Impact Assessment
- Testing & Rollback Procedures
- Emergency Change Handling
- Change Log & Documentation
- Roles & Responsibilities
- Post-Implementation Review
- Enforcement & Compliance
Built for Leaders, By Leaders
This policy gives you the control of an enterprise-level change process, simplified for the speed and agility of an SME. Manage risk without creating bureaucracy. It was authored by a security leader to be a practical framework that stands up to auditor scrutiny.
Authored by an expert holding:
Framework Compliance
🛡️ Supported Standards & Frameworks
This product is aligned with the following compliance frameworks, with detailed clause and control mappings.
| Framework | Covered Clauses / Controls |
|---|---|
| ISO/IEC 27001:2022 | 6.18.1 |
| ISO/IEC 27002:2022 | 8.32 |
| NIST SP 800-53 Rev.5 | CM-2CM-3CM-4CM-5CM-11 |
| EU NIS2 | Art. 21(2)(b) |
| EU DORA | Art. 6(9)Art. 8(4)(b) |
| COBIT 2019 | BAI06DSS01 |
Part of a Complete ISMS Toolkit
This policy is one of 37 documents in our complete toolkit. When implemented as a set, our framework helps you achieve comprehensive compliance across major standards.
100%
ISO 27001:2022
95%
NIST
88%
NIS2
75%
DORA
70%
GDPR
Related Policies
This foundational policy is directly linked to the following organizational security policies to ensure comprehensive alignment and traceability across the ISMS.
P2S - Governance Roles & Responsibilities Policy
Defines the approval authority for different types of changes.
P4S - Access Control Policy
Ensures access modifications from changes are correctly implemented.
P7S - Onboarding and Termination Policy
Coordinates changes related to user role transitions and access.
P15S - Backup and Restore Policy
Ensures rollback and recovery steps can be executed if a change fails.
P30S - Incident Response Policy
Governs how failed or unauthorized changes are treated as incidents.
About This Policy
A Change Management Policy is a crucial governance tool that provides a structured process for managing all modifications to IT systems, applications, and infrastructure. For Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs), implementing a formal change management process is key to preventing self-inflicted downtime, security vulnerabilities, and operational chaos. This policy ensures that every change, from software updates to network configuration adjustments, is properly requested, reviewed for risk, approved by the right people, tested, and documented.
This policy is specifically tailored for the SME environment, providing a simple yet robust framework that avoids unnecessary bureaucracy. It establishes clear roles, defines procedures for normal and emergency changes, and requires a documented rollback plan for high-risk activities. By adopting this ISO 27001:2022-aligned Change Management Policy, your organization can significantly improve its operational stability, enhance its security posture, and maintain a complete audit trail of all system changes, ensuring you are always ready for compliance checks.
