Appendix B

Urgency of Change:

1 Emergency

The problem requires immediate attention where either system failure or mission essential requirements are not available and no work around exists. This problem can apply to the system as a whole or to a particular site if system access is lost. This type of Change Request will receive an immediate initial analysis; however, the initial analysis is not mandatory for approval. The corrective action is implemented as soon as the fix is available regardless of change management schedule; however appropriate organizational reviews and approvals must be submitted to change management as soon as possible. Resolving and implementing a fix to a Priority 1 problem is worked until completed.

2 High/Urgent

The problem is of an urgent nature and can justify an out-of-cycle change. This priority is used for problems that meet the Priority 1 requirements, except that a work around exists, or performance degradation for which no temporary work-around is available however delay would not cause adverse mission impact beyond that of inconvenience. These changes must still be controlled, tested and approved prior to implementation on a production system. Change Requests that fall into this category may, must be submitted for final analysis, coordination and schedule inclusion.

3 Medium

Routine Change Requests are judged less operationally important than Priority 2 or the time frame is not critical for implementation. This priority may be used for important software/hardware/network maintenance issues such as version upgrades, utility software, etc. This priority may be used to improve very difficult or awkward implementations for heavily used subsystems on a selective basis. This priority may also be used for development activity or new requirements providing that the activity cannot be accomplished with the lower priority. These problems are resolved and implemented in the next scheduled change cycle.

4 Routine

This priority is intended primarily for new requirements and for fixing capabilities that are currently operational but are difficult or awkward to use. It applies also to non-standard implementations, and other assorted irritants.

Note: The NM has final determination as to the correct priority of each Change Request.