Change management

This guide explains how Customer Support Operations manages and deploys changes to our systems. We use four deployment types to categorize changes based on the item being modified, which determines when and how changes are deployed.

Types of deployments

Ad-hoc deployment

For some items, it makes little sense to deploy them on specific dates. For these items, they are deployed when the changes are made to the repos (or in the system itself).

An example of an Ad-hoc deployment would be macro changes in Zendesk.

Standard deployment

A standard deployment for us happens on the first of every month. We center our GitLab milestones around these. We utilize scheduled pipelines for these items so everything is automated. Changes in the repos following standard deployments are all synced to the systems via these on the deployment date.

An example of a Standard deployment would be trigger changes in Zendesk.

Exception deployment

There are situations where an item that normally uses a standard deployment needs to be done before the actual deployment date it would normally fall into.

When these situations occur, the general process for them should go as follows:

1. The requester asks for an exception deployment
2. Customer Support Operations leadership will make a comment detailing what the impacts of the exception deployment will be.
   • This is done by reviewing what has been merged and is “queued for deployment” in the various areas the topic entails.
3. Customer Support Operations leadership will review the request and impacts to make a decision on the feasibility and acceptance of the request. They will present the consequences, impact, etc. to the requester.
4. If the requester agrees with the Customer Support Operations leadership statement, they will confirm they still wish to proceed.
5. Customer Support Operations will then perform an exception deployment.
   • The exact means of doing so can vary, so please refer to the specific documentation for the item(s) in question.

Special deployment

This is a categorization for areas that require very specific deployment methods that fall outside of Standard, Exception, and Ad hoc deployments. Another way to phrase it is “Special deployments” are a catchall for anything not defined here. For more information on these, see the documentation page of the item itself.

An example of a Special deployment would be Workato changes.