220-1102 Question 681
Single answerChange freezeA company has entered a year-end change freeze from December 15 through January 2 to reduce the risk of outages during peak business activity. On December 20, a technician discovers that a line-of-business application on several accounting PCs will crash unless a newly released vendor patch is installed. The patch has been tested in the lab, but it is not yet deployed in production. What is the BEST next step?
- A
Deploy the patch immediately to all affected PCs because the issue impacts business operations
- B
Wait until the change freeze ends, since no production changes are allowed during a freeze
- C
Submit an emergency change request with the business impact, risk assessment, testing results, and rollback plan for approval
- D
Install the patch only after business hours without notifying change management to minimize disruption
Show answer and explanation
Correct answer: C
Explanation
A change freeze is a period when nonessential or high-risk changes are restricted to protect system stability, commonly during peak business periods, holidays, or major events. However, freezes typically allow documented exceptions for emergency changes when there is a strong business need or operational risk. The best practice is to submit an emergency change request that includes the reason for the exception, affected systems, testing evidence, risk analysis, implementation plan, communication plan, and rollback procedure. This reflects common IT service management guidance such as formal change control and exception handling practices found in frameworks like ITIL. For A+ Core 2, the key applied concept is understanding that a change freeze does not eliminate change management; it makes adherence to it more important.
- A. Incorrect.
This is incorrect. Even if the issue affects business operations, a change freeze does not mean technicians can bypass change management. During a freeze, only approved exceptions such as emergency changes should proceed. Deploying immediately without formal approval creates unnecessary risk and violates standard change control processes.
- B. Incorrect.
This is incorrect. A freeze limits routine changes, but it does not prohibit all production changes under every circumstance. If there is a significant business or operational impact, the proper action is to seek an approved exception through the emergency change process rather than automatically delaying remediation.
- C. Correct.
This is correct. During a change freeze, the proper response to a critical issue is to follow the organization's emergency or expedited change process. Including the business impact, test results, risk assessment, implementation steps, and rollback plan supports informed approval and controlled execution. This aligns with standard IT change management best practices.
- D. Incorrect.
This is incorrect. Performing an unapproved after-hours change is still a violation of change control. Although after-hours work may reduce user disruption, it does not address the governance, risk, and documentation requirements that are especially important during a freeze window.