Template

Change advisory board (CAB) meeting template

The regular meeting that approves changes to live systems: what is changing, what could break, how it is undone, and when.

45 minutesFor IT operations, service managers and change ownersAgenda room
Change the agenda first

The agenda, with a time for each part

  1. Changes since last time: how they went7 min
    • Did any change cause a problem we should learn from?
  2. Changes for approval, one by one25 min
    • What could this break, and for whom?
    • How long does it take to undo?
  3. Clashes on the calendar5 min
    • Are two risky changes going in on the same night?
  4. Emergency changes made since last time5 min
    • Was the emergency process used properly?
  5. Decisions recorded3 min
    • Approved, rejected or deferred — and who told the owner?

How the notes read afterwards

A made-up example, so you can see the shape. In a real call each line carries the words that were said and who said them.

Last week. Firewall update caused a 10-minute outage for the London office; the warning went out late.

Approved. Database upgrade on Saturday at 2am; rollback tested, 20 minutes.

Deferred. The email system change clashes with month-end close.

Running it well

Ways to change it

Emergency CABA short call with two approvers when a change cannot wait for the regular meeting.
Small teamA shared calendar and written approval in the ticket; meet only for the high-risk changes.

When to skip it. When every change on the list is a pre-approved standard change.

Questions

What is a change advisory board?

A group that reviews and approves changes to live IT systems, weighing the risk, the timing and how each change would be undone.

What does a CAB meeting cover?

How recent changes went, each change awaiting approval, clashes on the change calendar and any emergency changes.

How often does a CAB meet?

Usually weekly, with a faster emergency process for urgent changes.

What happens in the room

Everybody joins from the link, with no account. The agenda sits beside the call and each item fills in with what was said about it, under the name of the person who said it.

More templates

Scrum of scrumsSeveral teams working on one product send one person each to line up their work: what is done, what is next, and what one team is about to drop on another.Release planningBefore a release: agree what goes in and what stays out, the order things must land in, the risks to the date, and how you would roll it back.Capacity planningBefore committing to new work: count who is really here, what is already promised, and how much is left — then decide what fits and what does not.Root cause analysisAfter something went wrong: lay out exactly what happened, ask why until you reach causes you can change, and leave with fixes that each have an owner.Risk reviewA regular look at the list of things that could go wrong: which have grown, which are new, and whether the steps meant to stop them are actually happening.Story mapping workshopLay out everything a user does, step by step, across a wall; put the detailed stories under each step; then draw a line for the smallest first release that still works end to end.Technical design reviewBefore building something large, the engineer who wrote the design walks others through it so problems are found on paper, not in production.Security reviewBefore something new goes live: what data it touches, how it could be attacked or misused, what protects it today, and what must be fixed before launch.

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