IT Center Blog

Source: Own Illustration

IT systems are never really “finished”: no sooner has a change been successfully implemented than the software has to be updated or hardware replaced elsewhere. These changes keep us on our toes in the IT Center, but they also pose a challenge in terms of organisation. In this blog post, we take you behind the scenes of change management and use the example of the X-WiN routing switch to show you how we plan such a change in advance.

A Change Is Imminent – What Now?

If changes were simply carried out when it suits spontaneously, this would probably work well in some cases – but in many cases it would also lead to problems, which in the worst case would significantly restrict the ability of the entire RWTH to work. This could be the case, for example, if the change were to be implemented at a time when a service was actually particularly important. This is why structured change management is important in larger IT organisations, where colleagues can no longer have a complete overview of the changes to be carried out. Change management establishes and controls a process through which changes in an IT organisation are systematically evaluated and categorised, planned, approved and announced.

Many Changes – Many Challenges

When defining changes, there are a number of challenges that need to be taken into account in the process: Basically, every change harbours a certain risk for our applications. Even if we minimise the risks as much as possible by carrying out tests in advance, there are residual risks associated with working on systems, meaning that unexpected side effects and therefore (partial) failures can occur despite all caution. In addition, not all changes can run “silently” in the background. Maintenance windows are often necessary during which a service is not available or only available to a limited extent.

Furthermore, our IT systems are often interlinked, which adds to the complexity: For example, if work is being carried out on an application such as RWTHgpt or the RWTHApp, any outages are limited to these respective applications. However, when working on systems such as the RWTH Single Sign-On or our firewall, a whole range of applications would be affected in the event of an outage – a possible outage is therefore more critical here due to the impact and all the more difficult to plan.

Not all changes have the same requirements and framework conditions. This individuality depends, among other things, on the service that is affected, the possible effects and risks, but also on the implementation and the availability of the required personnel. The different demands placed on the changes can already be seen from the fact that some changes are carried out in the late afternoon, when the load on the affected system eases. However, this would be disadvantageous for some changes, as a certain load is required in order to recognise and quickly resolve any problems. In this case, it would make sense to carry out the change in the morning so that the system can be actively monitored during the working day and interventions can be made if necessary. Unfortunately, a universal change specification for all changes is not enough, so we usually have to look at and assess each individual case.

In addition to these challenges, which can only be touched on here, there is always another factor to consider: security. If an update has to be installed due to security concerns, this argument often outweighs the others. But here, too, the motto is: it depends on the individual case.

The Example of the X-WiN Routing Switch As a Major Change

But what exactly does change planning look like? In the IT Center, we initially assess the changes in two categories: Standard changes and non-standard changes. Standard changes are tried and tested changes without a higher risk, such as weekly maintenance, which are approved in advance and do not have to be announced internally. Non-standard changes, on the other hand, must be announced via a list within the IT Center and assessed according to the degree of potential impact and risk using the categories Minor, Medium or Major. Major is the change category with the most serious impact on users and/or the highest risk. Accordingly, the planning of such a change is the most extensive and the lead time the longest.

Such a major change was last carried out on June 10, 2025, when the central RWTH firewall was switched to our new X-WiN router. This switch meant that the entire external connection of the RWTH had to be interrupted for a certain period of time. In order to be able to rectify any problems caused by the switch, the (partial) outage of the connection was scheduled for a total of one hour.

When a specialist department is planning such a change, the IT Manager Operations, as the person responsible for the change management process, is brought on board at an early stage. Together with the person responsible for the change, a sensible time window was first sought in order to minimise the impact on work and teaching operations at RWTH. The guiding questions here were what impact the change would have on the users, which word-case scenario could occur, how likely it was that this would happen, whether a roll-back would be feasible, the maximum length of time the change could be postponed, etc. In the end, the Tuesday after Whitsun was chosen in order to use the excursion week as a lecture-free period. Despite the fact that teaching is suspended, the cancellation of the external connection is such a serious restriction that the colleagues carrying out the change agreed to start the change at 9pm.

In addition, the necessary communication measures were discussed and planned with the colleagues responsible for our marketing. We asked ourselves who we needed to inform and how we could reach our target groups. Due to the impact of the change, we decided in this example to place an information banner above the RWTH Single Sign-On in addition to the standard maintenance announcement. Alongside mass emails to RWTH members, this is our most powerful tool for actively communicating information to employees and students.

Following the scheduling and initial planning of the major changes, this was presented to the IT Center’s management committee. This committee is made up of the IT Center’s management staff and therefore also brings together the different perspectives of the departments. Questions were asked again about the change, the project was commented on and ultimately it was decided to go ahead with the proposed date.

The change was then implemented on June 10, 2025 as announced. Thanks to the communication measures taken, the members of RWTH were informed in the best possible way and were able to take the loss of the external connection into account in their work processes. The extensive and necessary work could be carried out while minimising the impact on research and teaching operations – a success across the board.

Responsible for the content of this article are  Susanne Kubiak and Nils Neumann.

Kategorie: Fun & Facts, Insight IT Center, Projects & Cooperations, Support, Services & Updates
Schlagworte: Change Management, Major Change, Router, Routercheck, X-WiN
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