Source: https://atomicwork.docs.pageloop.ai/product/change-management/customizing-change-templates

# Customizing change templates

Establish consistency and clarity in your change operations by creating custom change templates. Templates allow you to predefine the structure and workflow for different types of changes, ensuring that all necessary steps are followed every time.

There are three default templates available in a workspace for three types of changes: **Standard, Normal, and Emergency**. You can add more templates and stages to your change catalog.

A change moves through each stage of the process automatically when all the tasks are complete or when an IT agent clicks the **Mark as complete** button. You can assign tasks to different stakeholders after a change has been created.

With change templates, you can:

- **Define distinct stages:** Break down complex changes into manageable phases, such as 'Risk Analysis', 'Planning', 'Implementation', and 'Review'.

- **Incorporate custom attributes:** Add template-specific fields to capture all relevant information for a particular type of change. For example, a 'Password reset rollout' template might include a custom attribute for 'Category' or 'Affected Systems'.

- **Control employee access:** Decide whether a change template is available to employees for raising changes, and choose the user segments that can access the template.

- **Embed actions within stages:** Specify tasks, forms to be filled, or approval requirements at each stage of the change process.

- **Manage dependencies:** Mark actions as blocked by others, ensuring that tasks are performed in the correct sequence. For instance, a 'Deployment' task can be blocked until a 'Final Approval' action is completed.

- **Implement multi-stage approvals:** Configure approval steps at various points in the change lifecycle to ensure necessary oversight from relevant stakeholders. When an approval task is created, the system can be configured to request for approval whenever the tasks before it are complete; the approvers will receive actionable approval notifications via Teams/Slack. Atomicwork supports multiple approvals and allows actions to be blocked on other actions, providing comprehensive control over the approval flow.

- **Utilize conditional actions:** Set up IF-THEN logic to dynamically trigger different actions based on form inputs or other criteria within the change template.

## Create a change template

To create a change template,

- Go to **Settings > Enterprise automation > Service catalog**. Select **Organization** to apply this across the organization, or select a workspace to apply it to that workspace only. Select the **Change management** tab.

- Click **Create**. Provide a name and description for the change template so your teammates know the purpose of the template.

- **Requester access**: Turn on **Raise change** when employees should be able to use the template, then select the user segments that can access it. Segments define the employee audiences who can see or use the template. Learn more in [Managing audiences with segments](/product/identity-access-management/people-roles-and-teams/managing-audiences-with-segments).

- **Attributes**: You can view a list of attributes common across all changes as defined by a workspace admin. You can also add any custom attributes required for this specific template. Field-level requester behavior is configured per change attribute. Learn more in [Change attributes](/product/change-management/change-attributes).

- **Stages**: Add a stage name and choose how stages can be triggered (**automatically** when all actions in a stage are complete or **manually** as triggered by an agent).

- **Actions**: Add actions to stages as appropriate. These are a list of available actions: Assign a task, send the change for approval, collect information using a form, update attributes or [conditional actions](/product/change-management/conditional-actions-in-change-templates).

To start from an existing change template instead of building one from scratch, open its three-dot menu (**⋮**) and select the **Clone** option, then adjust what you need.

## Handle declined approvals with Restart a Stage

When an approval action in a change is declined, you don't have to start the change over. You can:

- Add additional actions to the stage

- Restart the current stage

- Restart the previous stage

When a stage restarts, Atomicwork notifies the requester and the assignee. Every restart is recorded in **Activities**, including which action was added, why it was added, and why the stage was restarted.

By default, a restarted stage starts with blank actions. To keep what people already entered, enable **Retain existing data** on the **Send for Approval** node in the **Restart a Stage** branch. Restarting the stage then keeps the data previously entered in actions like **Assign a Task** or **Collect Information** (form), so approvers and assignees only need to update what changed.