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Templates / Projects and agile

Change advisory board (CAB) meeting

CAB meeting agenda

A CAB meeting agenda reviews each normal change request waiting for approval, covering its risk, impact, rollback plan and proposed window, and records a decision: approved, approved with conditions, deferred or rejected. It also reviews changes carried out since the last meeting, confirms any emergency changes after the fact, and checks the forward schedule of change for clashes and freeze periods.

Best forIT operations and service management teams running a weekly change advisory board

Meeting length30 to 60 minutes, weekly

SectionsImplemented changes, emergency changes, change requests for approval, forward schedule, freezes, actions

FormatsGoogle Docs, Word, Notion, Markdown

Word Markdown

CAB meeting agenda.docx

CAB meeting agenda

Date Time45 min, weeklyChairChange managerAttendeesChange manager, infrastructure, security, service desk, application owners, requesters for items on the agendaPre-readChange requests submitted by the cut-off, usually two business days before

Item	Owner	Time	What we need to leave with
Review changes since last CAB	Change manager	10 min	Each change marked successful, failed or backed out, with follow-up owners
Emergency changes	Change manager	5 min	Each one confirmed as justified, or sent for review
Change requests for approval	Requesters	20 min	A decision on each: approved, approved with conditions, deferred or rejected
Forward schedule of change and freezes	Change manager	5 min	No clashes in the next two weeks, freeze dates confirmed
Actions read-back	Minutes taker	5 min	Every action has one owner and a date

Word MarkdownPastes into Google Docs, Word or Notion with headings and tables intact.

Word Markdown

CAB meeting minutes.docx

CAB meeting minutes

Date Chair Attendees Absent Minutes by

Changes implemented since last CAB

Change ID	Summary	Result	Note or follow-up
		Successful / Failed / Backed out

Emergency changes

Change ID	Summary	Why it couldn't wait	Confirmed?
			Yes / Sent for review

Change requests for approval

Change ID	Summary and systems	Risk	Window	Rollback plan	Decision	Conditions or next step
		Low / Medium / High	Date and time	Steps, time needed, tested?	Approved / Approved with conditions / Deferred / Rejected

Forward schedule of change

Date and time	Change ID	System	Owner

Freezes

Dates, systems covered, who can grant an exception

Actions

ID	Action	Owner	Due

Word MarkdownPastes into Google Docs, Word or Notion with headings and tables intact.

Marlow Freight IT change advisory board, week 45

Filled-in example

Marlow Freight IT change advisory board, week 45

DateTuesday, November 3, 2026, 10:00 to 10:40 amChairElena Varga (change manager)AttendeesRaj Patel (infrastructure), Simone Clarke (security), Hugo Lam (service desk), Nate Ferris (ERP owner), Priscilla Ade (network)AbsentDmitri Volkov (database admin), sent written notes on CHG-2219Minutes byHugo Lam

Changes implemented since last CAB

Change ID	Summary	Result	Note or follow-up
CHG-2201	Monthly patches, warehouse scanner servers group B	Successful
CHG-2204	Firewall rule cleanup, Kansas City depot	Backed out	A removed rule was still used by the label printers. Rolled back in 15 minutes. Re-submitted as CHG-2222.
CHG-2207	Email gateway certificate renewal	Successful	Done two days before expiry

Emergency changes

Change ID	Summary	Why it couldn't wait	Confirmed?
CHG-2215	Patch and restart the VPN appliance, Oct 30	Vendor rated the vulnerability critical, and the appliance faces the internet	Yes
CHG-2216	Expand disk on the shipment tracking database, Oct 31	Disk at 96%, tracking pages failing for customers	Yes, but monitoring warned on Oct 27. Follow-up A2.

Change requests for approval

Change ID	Summary and systems	Risk	Window	Rollback plan	Decision	Conditions or next step
CHG-2219	Version upgrade, shipment tracking database	High	Sat Nov 14, 10:00 pm to 2:00 am	Restore from backup and replay logs, about 90 min. Not tested yet.	Deferred	Re-submit once the rollback is tested in staging, with Dmitri attending
CHG-2221	Monthly ERP update, finance and invoicing modules	Medium	Sat Nov 7, 6:00 to 9:00 pm	Restore VM snapshot, about 20 min, tested in staging Oct 29	Approved with conditions	Finance confirms in writing that no invoice run is scheduled that evening
CHG-2222	Firewall rule cleanup, Kansas City depot (re-submitted, printer traffic now checked)	Medium	Wed Nov 11, 1:00 to 2:00 pm	Re-apply saved configuration, about 10 min	Approved
CHG-2224	New guest Wi-Fi network, Reno depot	Low	Thu Nov 12, 9:00 am to noon	Disable the new network, about 5 min	Approved
CHG-2225	Replace the core switch at head office	High	Sat Nov 28	None provided	Rejected	Falls inside the peak shipping freeze. Re-submit for January with a rollback plan.

Forward schedule of change

Date and time	Change ID	System	Owner
Sat Nov 7, 6:00 pm	CHG-2221	ERP finance and invoicing	Nate Ferris
Wed Nov 11, 1:00 pm	CHG-2222	Kansas City depot firewall	Priscilla Ade
Thu Nov 12, 9:00 am	CHG-2224	Reno depot guest Wi-Fi	Priscilla Ade
Sat Nov 14, 10:00 pm	CHG-2219	Shipment tracking database	Dmitri Volkov (deferred, slot held until Nov 10)

Freezes

Peak shipping freeze: Monday Nov 23 to Friday Dec 4, all customer-facing and warehouse systems. Emergency changes only. The IT director grants exceptions.
Year-end freeze dates for late December not set yet. Elena will propose them at the next CAB.

Actions

ID	Action	Owner	Due
A1	Tell Dmitri about the deferral and book a staging rollback test for CHG-2219	Elena	Nov 4
A2	Find out why the Oct 27 disk alerts didn't turn into a planned change	Raj	Nov 10
A3	Get written confirmation from finance that no invoice run is set for Nov 7	Nate	Nov 5
A4	Propose year-end freeze dates	Elena	Nov 10
A5	Decide who keeps the label printer inventory, missing from the configuration records. No owner yet, Elena raises it with the IT director.	Elena (to raise)	Nov 10

Marlow Freight and everyone in its IT team are a fictional sample.

Best forIT operations and service management teams running a weekly change advisory board

Meeting length30 to 60 minutes, weekly

SectionsImplemented changes, emergency changes, change requests for approval, forward schedule, freezes, actions

FormatsGoogle Docs, Word, Notion, Markdown

What to write in each section

Changes implemented since last CAB

Every change since the last meeting, marked successful, failed or backed out. Failed and backed-out changes get a short note and, if needed, a follow-up in an action items tracker. This is how the board learns which kinds of change are riskier than they look.

Emergency changes

Changes made without the usual approval because something was broken or exposed. The board confirms after the fact that the emergency route was justified and the record is complete. If the emergency was predictable, say so and follow up.

Change requests for approval

Normal changes only. Pre-approved standard changes (low risk, done the same way many times) shouldn't come to CAB at all. The requester or implementer attends for their own item and answers questions. Giving each item a time slot, as covered in how to write a meeting agenda, means they don't sit through the whole meeting.

"Restore the VM snapshot taken before the change, about 20 minutes, tested in staging Oct 29" is a rollback plan. "Roll back if needed" is not.

Risk

Use the same scale every week (low, medium, high) and write what drives the rating: how many users are affected, whether it touches business hours, and whether this change has been done before.

Decision and conditions

Record one of four outcomes. For approved with conditions, write the condition so the implementer can meet it without coming back to ask. For deferred or rejected, write what would get it approved.

Forward schedule of change

Upcoming changes in date order, so clashes with other changes, business events and freeze periods are visible a week or two ahead.

Freezes

Dates when only emergency changes are allowed, which systems they cover, and who can grant an exception. Your organization's change policy sets these rules, so copy them from it rather than deciding them in the meeting.

When to use this template

Changes reach production with an approval nobody can find afterwards.
Two teams scheduled work on the same system on the same night and nobody saw the clash until it broke.
Your CAB approves everything without discussion and you want a format that actually looks at risk and rollback.

Questions people ask

Who should attend a CAB meeting?: The change manager chairs it. Regular members usually include infrastructure, security, the service desk and the owners of the main business applications. Requesters join only for their own changes, and a business representative attends when a change directly affects their users.
Which changes need to go to the CAB?: Normal changes: ones that aren't pre-approved and carry some risk. Standard changes are approved in advance, and emergency changes are reviewed after they happen. Your change policy decides where the lines fall, so keep a copy of those rules with the agenda.
Does a weekly CAB still make sense for teams that deploy often?: Many organizations now keep the CAB for high-risk changes only and let automated checks and peer review approve routine ones. The meeting gets shorter and spends its time on the few changes that really need a group decision.

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