How do you manage change and release dependencies and conflicts across multiple projects and platforms?

You should also consider the following while assessing the impact: Add a questionnaire for the team that is submitting the change request. Configure your systems to identify and assess past changes implemented by the team and the individuals (how many of them were successful?) to calculate their reliability. Ensure you have an updated CMDB with defined maintenance windows. By implementing these practices, you can enhance the impact assessment process, improve change management, and make more informed decisions about the proposed changes.

- Also consider the following: Impact: Avoid planning multiple high-impact or critical changes during the same window to minimize the risk of system instability and potential conflicts. Time: Ideally, schedule the changes during off-business hours to minimize disruption to normal operations and end-users. Communication: Communicate upcoming changes to stakeholders (including team members, management, and end-users) with sufficient time and effort. For significant changes, use marketing campaigns to highlight benefits and prepare users for adjustments. Train the Trainer - It is an effective approach where selected individuals are trained to become trainers themselves, passing on their knowledge and skills to a broader audience.

You should also consider using test automation: Why: Automated test scripts enable quick execution of a large number of test cases, significantly reducing testing time compared to manual testing. This speed is crucial during change deployment when time is of the essence. How: There are numerous open-source platforms available to facilitate your automation journey, such as Python and Selenium. Who: Automated test cases can be created by developers or test engineers in conjunction with the business teams that provided the requirements. Consider: If you're following Agile practices, it is recommended to run automated test cases before deployment and incorporate them as part of your CI/CD toolchain.

You should also consider having a backout or a rollback plan. Your rollback plan must comprise of the following: 1. When: The first and foremost step is to identify when to trigger the decision to initiate the backout process. 2. Why: This decision could be based on several criterias like major outage, performance issues, abnormal behaviour reported by monitoring systems, security vulnerability 3. How: Ensure you have a defined sequence of steps that need to be followed during the backout process. Be sure to include specific commands, configuration changes, and any other actions required. 4. Who: Ensure you include all the members with the required access and approval authority while creating and implementing the rollback plan.

As with many aspects of change and project management, you need effective communication. This is to ensure inter-dependency, scheduling conflicts, resource requirements, etc., can be mitigated effectively. Additionally, you need an effective change management review/ approval process. To ensure that any proposed change(s) can have their implementation validates and roll back processes applied, if appropriate, etc.