Sheet BEA-02 — ITSM Manual
Automation & Change Governance
Journey automation, change approval, CAB and freeze windows, and major incident response.
What this area covers
Beacon automates repeatable service work with journeys and governs risky work with the change process. This area covers both, plus the major incident layer that takes over when normal handling is not enough.
Operational areas in scope
| Area | What operators need from it | Why it matters |
|---|---|---|
| Journey templates | Ready-made automations you enable and tune, not build from scratch | Most desks need the same twenty automations, not a workflow engine |
| Journey studio and runs | A place to author custom journeys and watch every run | Automation you cannot inspect is automation you cannot trust |
| Change lifecycle | Authoring, governance gates, CAB approval, scheduling, and review | Change risk is managed before implementation, not explained after it |
| Freeze windows and collisions | Scheduling that respects blackout periods and detects double-booked kit | Two changes on the same system in the same window is how outages start |
| Major incident operations | Declaration, roles, a comms drumbeat, and stand-down | Major incidents fail on coordination more often than on technology |
| Post-incident review | A mandatory review that spawns the root-cause problem | An incident closed without learning will happen again |
What operators are actually managing
- Decide which journey templates run, with what parameters, and which stay off.
- Keep custom journeys dry-run tested before they touch live tickets.
- Hold the change governance gate even when the calendar is under pressure.
- Schedule changes around freeze windows and check for collisions before approval.
- Run major incidents with named roles and a communication rhythm stakeholders can rely on.
What this public manual area includes
- The journey template gallery and the journey studio.
- Change management end to end, including emergency changes.
- Major incident operations from declaration through post-incident review.
What healthy operation looks like
- Automation handles the repetitive work and leaves the judgment calls to people.
- Every journey run is visible from the ticket it touched.
- Changes clear governance because the process is fast, not because it was skipped.
- Major incidents end with a review, a root-cause problem, and fewer repeats.