Integrated Methodology for Information System Change Control Based on Enterprise Architecture Models

The information system (IS) change management and governance, according to the best practices, are defined and described in several international methodologies, standards, and frameworks (ITIL, COBIT, ValIT etc.). These methodologies describe IS change management aspects from the viewpoint of their particular enterprise resource management area. The areas are mainly viewed in a partly isolated environment, and the integration of the existing methodologies is insufficient for providing unified and controlled methodological support for holistic IS change management. In this paper, an integrated change management methodology is introduced. The methodology consists of guidelines for IS change control by integrating the following significant resource management areas – information technology (IT) governance, change management and enterprise architecture (EA) change management. In addition, the methodology includes lists of controls applicable at different phases. The approach is based on re-use and fusion of principles used by related methodologies as well as on empirical observations about typical IS change management mistakes in enterprises.