Change management practices address the full lifecycle of assets (for example, acquisition, deployment, operation, retirement)

Organizational and operational conditions are continually changing, resulting in changes to staff, to the content and use of data, to technology, and so on. These changes can impact important assets throughout their lifecycles. Change management practices should not be limited to changes to operationally deployed assets but should encompass all phases of the lifecycle, including acquisition, deployment, and retirement. To this end, the organization must define and manage the process for keeping the asset inventory current and ensure that changes to the inventory do not result in gaps in strategies for protecting and sustaining assets. Also, the organization must actively monitor for changes that significantly alter assets, identify new assets, and call for the retirement of assets for which there is no longer a need or whose relative value has been reduced. Consider that different types of technologies (such as virtualized assets and cloud assets) may have unique lifecycle stages and other distinctive aspects that impact how change management should be implemented.