A change record is a Jira issue. Recording a change does not create anything new — it adds the governance facts Jira has no field for to an issue that already exists.
1. Open the issue
Any issue in a project where Change Guards is set up. If your team has a Change request type, use it; if not, any type works. The panel appears on the issue view.
Until you record details, the panel says the issue is not yet governed by Change Guards and nothing is written to the audit trail. An issue nobody has recorded governance for is simply not governed, and the app says so rather than implying otherwise.
2. Record the details
- 1
Select Record change details
The read-only view becomes a form.
- 2
Set the risk
Low, medium or high. Risk drives the CAB agenda ordering, so it is worth being honest rather than optimistic.
- 3
Choose the change type
Normal, standard or emergency — see below for what each one changes.
- 4
Name the impacted service
What breaks if this goes wrong. Free text, so it can match whatever you call your services.
- 5
Set the planned window
Start and end. This is what freeze windows are checked against, so a change with no planned start can never conflict with one.
- 6
Save
The audit entry is written before the record, so a failure can never leave a change nobody recorded.
Which change type?
| Type | Use it when | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Normal | The default. Assessed and approved before it is scheduled. | Must pass through review before it can be approved. |
| Standard | Pre-authorised and low risk — something the team has agreed is routine. | Recorded rather than re-argued, but still follows the review path. |
| Emergency | Restoring service now. The incident is already happening. | Can be approved straight from draft. Approval is still demanded — captured alongside, not waived. |
3. Check what the panel now says
Things worth knowing
- Times are shown in your own timezone, taken from your Atlassian profile — not the site’s or the author’s.
- A window must end after it starts. An inverted window would silently match no freeze at all while looking checked, so it is refused.
- Rescheduling re-checks freezes. If your new window lands inside one, the change is flagged immediately.
- Editing is audited. Every change to the details appends an entry naming what changed.