Introducing Automation in Change Management
TechTarget, Tuesday, August 19th, 2025
Classify changes by reversibility, then automate evidence collection to justify lighter approvals.
Joseph Michela argues that change management can be streamlined for reversible changes by automating the evidence-verification step rather than the approval itself.
He proposes three reversibility categories: bi-directional changes that can be undone through the same API, mono-directional changes reversible only by another method, and destructive changes that cause permanent data loss.
For the reversible categories, teams should gather machine-verifiable artifacts such as automation scripts, audit records, metrics, and partner-system documentation to justify a lighter approval path.
Making this work requires collaborating with the change management team to identify which evidence format produces the largest efficiency gain while preserving compliance and auditability.