Effectively managing changes within Microsoft 365 is crucial for maintaining smooth business operations.
The Maturity Model for Microsoft 365 is a strategic tool intended for assessing business capabilities and to guide planning. The maturity model can be applied to practical scenarios, aiming to suggest strategies for optimum usage of the M365 suite ,maximising an organisation’s investment. In this blog, we outline the application of the maturity model to service change management, enabling organisations to determine where they currently sit on the maturity model, and where there is room for improvement in their change optimisation process.
Introduction to Service Change Management
One of the primary tools for managing Microsoft 365 service changes is the Microsoft 365 Admin Center, featuring the Message Center and Service Health. These platforms keep IT administrators informed of technical and feature changes with regular updates. Given the high volume of changes — over 1,000 change items annually — keeping on top of these updates is crucial for ensuring smooth IT operations and minimising service disruption.
The Microsoft 365 Message Center is the main hub for change communications. Service Health complements this and provides updates on live issues and the current status of the services you’re licensed for in your tenant. It is therefore imperative that you remain vigilant and monitor service impacting changes that need to be communicated to both IT operations and end users.
Applying the Maturity Model to Service Change Management
Level 100 - Initial
At the Initial Level, organisations lack a designated individual to review updates, often leading to surprises when changes occur. As a result, new features might be overlooked, unexpected feature retirements could disrupt processes, and service outages may lead to wasted resources as staff try to resolve issues which could have been foreseen and prevented.
Level 200 - Managed
The Managed Level involves sporadic message reviews by someone within the organisation. Changes are monitored on an ad-hoc basis and change communication is often late or based on individual judgement. Strategic planning for organisational adaptation to changes remains limited with the approach being largely reactive to user reporting as opposed to proactive.
Level 300 - Defined
Organisations at the Defined Level actively distribute Message Center updates. The relevant IT staff have regular meetings to discuss updates, although these are usually part of a weekly meeting rather than a dedicated meeting for service change management.
Specific actions are noted, with tasks manually added to tools such as Planner. Key alerts from Service Health are communicated to relevant teams, assisting service desk teams in proactive issue management.
Level 400 - Managed (Capable)
At the Managed level, Message Center is configured by an organization to pump announcements into Microsoft Planner as tasks. See this blog to learn how to sync Message Center with Planner.
The relevant staff receive email updates and such updates may also be posted in Teams Channels. Regular meetings occur with the relevant IT team and business stakeholders to review new actions, assess required action and urgency. Task progress and impact is also monitored and reported on.
Service desk staff develop responses to Service Health issues, providing support for staff as needed and the impact and severity of such issues is clearly communicated.
Level 500 - Optimised (Efficient)
At the highest level, organisations employ advanced change management solutions which go beyond Planner’s capabilities. Notifications and updates are automated and the tool is aware of who is responsible for which workload within the team.
Staff across departments, including those involved in preview activities, collaboratively assess changes. Continual monitoring of change impacts and feedback to Microsoft contribute to an optimised and efficient change management process, where service disruption can be minimised, and operational efficiency is maximised.
Effectively managing service changes in Microsoft 365 ensures minimal disruption and leverages new opportunities for organisational growth. A capable service change management process may be developed using Microsoft’s provisions alone, however it is recommended that more advanced, automated solutions are employed in order to reach Level 500, the point at which change is optimally managed and aptly prepared for in order to maximise an organisation’s Microsoft 365 investment.
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Feb 3, 2025 9:54:28 AM
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