Assist with Policy Development for Client Support TTLM)

Nefas Silk Polytechnic College

HARDWARE AND NETWORK SERVICE

Level IV

Learning Guide
Unit of Competence: Assist with Policy Development for Client
Support

Module Title: Assisting with Policy Development for Client Support

LG Code : EIS HNS4 02 0811

TLM Code : EIS HNS4 02M0811

NPTC, HNS | Level-IV | Assist with Policy TTLM Prepared by Meresa H. -Date: April 2021 1
 Assist with Policy Development for Client Support TTLM)

MT: Assisting with Policy Development for Client

Support
This learning guide is developed to provide you the necessary information
regarding the following content coverage and topics –
 Review change requests
 Train on the Use of Modified System
 Modify system according to requested changes
This guide will also assist you to attain the learning guide stated in the cover
page. Specifically, upon completion of this Learning Guide, you will be able to
–
 Review change requests
 Train on the Use of Modified System
 Modify system according to requested changes

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Information Sheet # 1 Change Request

1. Introduction

A change request is a document containing a call for an adjustment of a system. A

change request is declarative, i.e. it states what needs to be accomplished, but leaves
out how the change should be carried out. Important elements of a change request are
an ID, the customer (ID), the deadline (if applicable), an indication whether the change is
required or optional, the change type and a change abstract which is a piece of
narrative.

Change requests typically originate from one of five sources:

 Problem reports that identify bugs that must be fixed, which forms the most
common source. (Note: A software bug is the common term used to describe an
error, flaw, mistake, failure or fault in a computer program or system that
produces an incorrect or unexpected result or causes it to behave in unintended
ways.
 System enhancement requests from users,
 Events in the development of other systems,
 Changes in underlying structure and or standards (e.g. in software development
this could be a new operating system), and
 Demands from senior management.

1.1.Receiving and documenting request

Requests you receive from your clients should be documented in a request form.
You may receive a request from your clients in different ways such as: telephone, in
person, in request form, email, etc. Prepare a request form in your computer that
contains detail information about the request and document the requests on your form.

1.1.1. Prepare a Request Form

Why Should We Use Request Forms in Project Management Software?

Request forms allow you to capture work requests as they come in. These forms also
enable you to establish a formal process for submitting, tracking, evaluating, and

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implementing those requests. Using request forms, project teams can successfully control
the entire end-to-end work request process.
Project management software request forms typically consist of two primary parts:
 The request form builder, which admins use to create and edit form templates
 The submission forms used by requesters
Request forms can be used to submit any type of work request, including the following:
 Launching a new project
 Adding new work scope
 Making a project change
 Kicking off the next work phase
 Beginning a new task
Each request type will have a different form template. The chosen form will provide the
necessary questions to be answered for the request to be successfully submitted.

Request forms can capture short answer text, paragraphs, drop-downs, numbers,
percentages, currency, and dates saved to custom fields.
Example: Network and Cable Wiring Special Request Form
This form is for all requests regarding internet wiring installs and/or cable wiring installs
involving UNIT and/or third party vendors. This includes projects, upgrade requests, new
wiring/cable runs and etc…

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Account numbers are required for all wiring requests. There are related charges for
completion of work.

Name of
Requestor *
Requestor Email *
Contact Phone
Number *
Department *
Account Number *
Do you need a  Yes
quote? *  No
Building/Room
Number *
Detailed
Description of
Work to be Done *

Requested Install
Date *
Other?

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 1.2. Gathering of system data
After you create documentation for the requests you receive, you should gather the
systems data from the system itself using different diagnostic tools. if, the request forms
are submitted to the system. This will help you to identify what the real problem is.

1.3.Organize Relevant Information

The proposed changes are reviewed against current and future business requirements.
When working on any project, expect change. While change can have a significant
impact on a project, its change requests that aren’t appropriately approved,
incorporated, and communicated that cause significant issues and have negative
impacts that often spiral out across the organization. Let’s see. how to manage change
requests and an informed decision can be made about whether or not to approve them,
and how change can be incorporated into a project with as little disruption as possible.
Step 1 – Determine the Scope of the Change

The first question to consider is what exactly the scope of the change request is. A
change request could be related to the business, stakeholder, or functional requirements.
This step looks a lot like discovering new requirements for the project in the first place.
You’ll want to involve all impacted stakeholders in eliciting the requirements of the
change, analyze those requirements, and then validate them.

Along with identifying what the change is, you’ll want to identify the benefit of making
change or the business need driving the change as well. This will help your change
approval team determine whether or not the proposed change is worth the effort. But
we’re getting a step or two ahead of ourselves. Before the change request form can be
submitted for approval, you’ll need to understand what it will take to implement the
change. That’s covered in Step 2.
Step 2 – Determine the Scope of Incorporating the Change

Once you understand what the proposed change is and why it’s important, your project
team will need to formulate a response to the proposed change. This typically means
identifying the impact of the change on the technical design and project schedule, putting
together a high-level implementation plan, and determining the level of effort to make the
change. With this information in hand, often documented in a Change Request Form,

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you’ll be able to articulate whether the change impacts the project budget, schedule, or
scope.
Sometimes there are multiple options for incorporating the change. For example, one
approach could be to trade-off the change for a lower-priority requirement and not impact
the schedule or scope. Another approach could involve delays to the schedule and an
increased budget, but keep the original scope intact. Often during this step, one or
more business stakeholders are involved to evaluate trade-offs and solution approaches.
The goal in this step is to present the information your change approval team needs to
make an informed decision about whether or not to approve the change. Let’s look at that
step next.
Step 3 – Gain Approval or Rejection of the Change

With the scope of the change, benefits of the change, and information about what it will
take to implement the change in hand, the change request form is ready to be presented
to the change approval team. One thing to keep in mind is that most organizations have
various levels of approvals.
 A change requiring an hour of work might be approved within the project team by the
primary business sponsor.
 A change requiring a week of work might be approved by a mid-level management
team who can authorize changes that have minor impacts to other projects on the
roadmap.
 A change to a primary business requirement requiring a month or more of work might
be approved at the executive level because it impacts high-level organizational
initiatives.
While realistic, these are hypothetical examples. More mature organizations will have
specific criteria in place outlining what stakeholder group can approve what kinds of
changes. More informal organizations will figure this out as they go along. Provided the
change is approved, it’s time to act on the implementation plan and communicate the
change throughout the project team.
Step 4 – Communicate and Implement an Approved Change Request

Once a change request is approved, the project team needs to be notified and project
deliverables need to be updated. Consider the following potential updates, depending on
the degree of the impact and the state of your project:

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  Requirements Documentation
 Technical Design Documentation
 Software or Programming Code
 Project Plans and Schedules
 Test Plans or Test Cases
 Training Documentation
 Business Process Documentation
Often these updates are facilitated by a formal change notification process, where the
project manager or business analyst notifies the project team of the change and each
document owner incorporates the appropriate adjustments into their deliverables.
Manage Change or It Will Manage You!

While “change” is often thought of as a dirty word, the reality is that change happens for
legitimate business reasons. In today’s fast-moving and competitive marketplace, it’s
unrealistic to expect stakeholders to have perfect knowledge of what they want or need to
achieve business objectives. we want to avoid drastic changes not tied to business
objectives, but we don’t want to do so at the expense of ignoring real opportunities to
deliver more value to the organization.
The most important thing is that an informed decision is made about if and how to
incorporate the change. Steps 1 and 2 support the discovery of information for an
informed decision to be made by the appropriate people in your organization. The second,
and nearly equally important thing is that change is managed in such a way that everyone
involved understands what the change is, why it’s important, and what impact it has.
That’s covered in step 4.

1.4.Examining System Data

System data are examined, with work team, in order to select appropriate changes to be
carried out. Selected changes are discussed and clarified with client.

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LO-2: Modify system according to requested changes
2. System Modification
Problems can be defined broadly as situations in which we experience uncertainty or
difficulty in achieving what we want to achieve, eg.
 Stopping smoking is a problem when you decide you want to stop but
cannot.
 A computer malfunction is a problem if it prevents you completing work on
time.
 An excessive workload is a problem when it interferes with your ability
to work effectively.
 Poor communication is a problem when it reduces the efficiency of an
organization.

Problems arise when an obstacle prevents us reaching an objective, eg when a

breakdown in a company's manufacturing plant (the obstacle) prevents it fulfilling orders
(the objective).

2.1.Problem Solving
As a student you are likely to be involved with a wide range of activities on campus, at
work, in your home and with your friends. At times during these activities challenges or
problems will arise. Often you would resolve these automatically, however sometimes
you may experience a significant problem which you find difficult to solve as quickly or
as automatically as you may under other circumstances.
Problem solving is a process and skill that you develop over time to be used when
needing to solve immediate problems in order to achieve a goal.

2.1.1. The Stages of Problem Solving

There are many different ways to solve a problem, however all ways involve a series
of steps. The following is a seven-step problem solving model:

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Step 1: Identify the problem
Firstly, you need to identify and name the problem so that you can find an appropriate
solution. You may not be clear of what the problem is or feel anxious/confused about
what is getting in the way of your goals. Try talking to others, as this may help you
identify the problem.

Step 2: Explore the problem

When you are clear about what the problem is you need to think about from different
angles. You can ask yourself questions such as:
 How is this problem affecting me?
 How is it affecting others?
 Who else experiences this problem?
 What do they do about it?
Seeing the problem in different ways is likely to help you find an effective
solution.

Step 3: Set goals

Once you have thought about the problem from different angles you can identify
your goals. What is it that you want to achieve? Sometimes you may become frustrated
by a problem and forget to think about what you want to achieve. For example, you

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might become ill, struggle to complete a number of assignments on time and feel so
unmotivated that you let due dates pass.
 Improve your health?
 Increase your time management skills?
 Complete the assignments to the best of your ability?
 Finish the assignments as soon as possible?
If you decide your goal is to improve your health that will lead to different solutions to
those linked with the goal of completing your assignments as soon as possible. One
goal may lead you to a doctor and another may lead you to apply for extensions for
your assignments. So working out your goals is a vital part of the problem solving
process.

Step 4: Look at Alternatives

When you have decided what your goal/s is you need to look for possible solutions. The
more possible solutions you find the more likely it is that you will be able to discover an
effective solution. You can brain-storm for ideas. The purpose of brain-storming is to
collect together a long list of possibilities. It does not matter whether the ideas are
useful or practical or manageable: just write down the ideas as they come into your
head. Some of the best solutions arise from creative thinking during brain-storming. You
can also seek ideas about possible solutions by talking to others. The aim is to collect
as many alternative solutions as possible.

Step 5: Select a Possible Solution

From the list of possible solutions, you can sort out which are most relevant to your
situation and which are realistic and manageable. You can do this by predicting the
outcomes for possible solutions and also checking with other people what they think
the outcomes may be. When you have explored the consequences, you can use this
information to identify the solution which is most relevant to you and is likely to have the
best outcomes for your situation.

Step 6: Implement a possible solution

Once you have selected a possible solution you are ready to put it into action. You will
need to have energy and motivation to do this because implementing the solution

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may take some time and effort. You can prepare yourself to implement the solution by
planning when and how you will do it, whether you talk with others about it, and what
rewards you will give yourself when you have done it.

Step 7: Evaluate
Just because you have implemented the best possible solution, you may not have
automatically solved your problem, so evaluating the effectiveness of your solution is
very important. You can ask yourself (and others) :
 How effective was that solution?
 Did it achieve what I wanted?
 What consequences did it have on my situation?
If the solution was successful in helping you solve your problem and reach your goal,
then you know that you have effectively solved your problem. If you feel dissatisfied with
the result, then you can begin the steps again.

2.1.2. When to use problem solving

You can solve problem anytime you experience a challenge or have a goal to achieve.
You can use the problem solving model to look for solutions to concerns connected with
your study or other aspects of your life. You can take the problem solving steps by
yourself, with a friend or others. Problem solving with others is often very effective
because you have access to a wide variety of viewpoints and potential solutions. The
problem solving model is a useful resource for you to utilize in all aspects of your life
and when dealing with challenging situations.

2.1.3. The skills of problem solving

Problem solving requires two distinct types of mental skill, analytical and
creative.
Analytical or logical thinking includes skills such as ordering, comparing, contrasting,
evaluating and selecting. It provides a logical framework for problem solving and helps
to select the best alternative from those available by narrowing down the range of
possibilities (a convergent process).
Analytical thinking often predominates in solving closed problems, where the many
possible causes have to be identified and analyzed to find the real cause. Some other
terms which are often used in discussions of creativity include:

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  Intuition - the ability to draw conclusions based on impressions and
feelings rather than hard facts. It is a characteristic of right-brain thinking and
some people rely on it more than others.
 Incubation - the period between stopping conscious work on a problem
and the time when we become aware of a solution or part solution. People
struggling with problems often suddenly become aware of a solution after a
period of incubation, during which the mind is occupied by other things.
 Invention - the creation of new, meaningful ideas or concepts.
 Innovation - putting new ideas or concepts to a practical use, as in the
development of a new product or service.

2.1.4. Identify solution to solve problems

Even though every problem has a solution, each problem and its best solution
should be identified. A single problem may have many solutions or different
way of solving that problem, but the best way or the best solution should be
identified. For example you have the following cases, list the possible solutions
and identify the best solution for each case.

Case # 1:

Case # 2:

Case # 3:

2.1.5. Developing recommendations

There may be different recommendations to solve a single problem,
develop/collect these recommendations from your work team, your experience,
etc.. to get the best solution.

2.1.6. Planning solutions

Planning helps you to identify the best solution in terms of time, practice, cost,
etc. After you collect the recommendations you should prepare a plan for
implementation and evaluation. Your plan may include the best solution,
implementation and evaluation.

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2.1.7. Document recommended solutions
After you plan you are going to prepare technical documentation for the
recommended solutions and submit to the appropriate person for confirmation.

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LO-3: Train on the use of Modified System
3. Preparation of training
Once a training organization has accepted its role to deliver the training for the
apprenticeship or traineeship, it needs to assist all parties to prepare for training. This
includes:
 Resource assessment: The training organization must assess the
employer's training resources to ensure the facilities, range of work, supervision
and training is adequate for the school-based apprentice or trainee to achieve
the outcomes of the training plan.
 Induction information: The training organization is required to provide (or
arrange to provide) the employer and the school-based apprentice or trainee
with induction information when they commence the apprenticeship or
traineeship. This induction information must include:
o the rights and responsibilities of all parties to the apprenticeship or
traineeship
o training organization grievance procedures and avenues to appeal
assessment
o Information about training costs including training delivery costs,
tuition fees, student services fees and any other fees. (Please note if
training is funded through User Choice, the training organization may
exempt the school-based apprentice and trainee from tuition fees).
 Training plan: A training plan must be developed for each school-based
apprentice and trainee. The training plan outlines the training to be delivered to the
apprentice or trainee by the employer and the training organization.
The training organization is required to negotiate the development of the training plan
with the employer, the school-based apprentice or trainee, and the school. It is
important that the training plan is tailored to each workplace and individual school-based
apprentice or trainee.
The training organization must take all reasonable steps to ensure that the training plan
is negotiated and signed during the probationary period of the apprenticeship or
traineeship.

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  Training record: The training organization must provide the school-based
apprentice or trainee with a training record within 14 days of the training plan being
signed.
The training record documents the school-based apprentice or trainee's progress and
achievement of the competencies as outlined in the training plan.
There is no set format for a training record. It may be kept in any way the training organization
considers appropriate. For example, the training record may be kept in booklet form, or in an
electronic format.
The school-based apprentice or trainee is responsible for looking after the training record and
must make it available for inspection or updating when required by the training organization or
employer.

Prepare training
Identify a topic and prepare training for the new changes to be applied and integrated with
existing one.

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