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Change Management and Maintenance Windows

Change Management and Maintenance Windows

Purpose

This section defines the principles and procedures governing Change Management and maintenance windows for Samtrafiken ACCESS and the National Distribution System (NDS).

The objective is to ensure controlled implementation of changes while minimizing disruption to the Samtrafiken ecosystem and protecting service availability, integrity, and security.

Scope and Limitations

This routine applies exclusively to systems, services, and components operated or managed by Samtrafiken.
It does not include maintenance activities performed by Retailers, Producers, Distributors, or other third parties outside Samtrafiken’s control. Such parties are solely responsible for planning and communicating their own maintenance activities, including any resulting service limitations for which Samtrafiken shall bear no responsibility.

Planned Maintenance Windows

Samtrafiken shall plan and coordinate maintenance windows for Samtrafiken ACCESS, taking into consideration the operational needs of all ecosystem partners, including Retailers, Producers, Distributors, and subcontractors.

Planned maintenance may include, but is not limited to:

  • Delivery of new functionality in releases, including deployments performed by Samtrafiken or its subcontractors

  • Platform updates, technical improvements, and infrastructure maintenance

Samtrafiken shall:

  • Provide advance notice of planned maintenance windows within a reasonable timeframe, taking into account the nature and impact of the change

  • Schedule such maintenance windows, where feasible, during periods of low usage

  • Use reasonable efforts to minimize service disruption and downtime

  • Communicate the expected duration of the maintenance window and any anticipated service impact, including estimated downtime

Release-related changes shall be documented in Release Notes and made available via Samtrafiken’s documentation portal (wiki).
Samtrafiken shall ensure that relevant stakeholders are informed through agreed communication channels, including but not limited to Test and Release forums, digital collaboration channels, and email distribution lists.

Planned Urgent Changes

Samtrafiken may perform planned urgent changes where necessary, including but not limited to important corrections or risk mitigations. Such changes shall follow the same communication principles as planned maintenance but may be communicated with shorter notice.

Emergency Maintenance

Samtrafiken may perform emergency maintenance at any time if required to resolve high-priority incidents or to protect service availability, integrity, or security.

Where reasonably practicable, Samtrafiken shall:

  • Notify affected parties without undue delay

  • Use best efforts to minimize the scope, duration, and impact of such maintenance

Change Restriction Periods

Samtrafiken may define periods during which changes are restricted due to operational considerations, including but not limited to low staffing levels or critical business periods.

During such periods:

  • Changes to production environments shall be strictly limited

  • Pre-production environments (Prelive) shall maintain production-like stability, and changes may be restricted accordingly

Exceptions may be granted for critical changes subject to appropriate approval.