Emergency Change Documentation & Authorization

This question asks whether you have formal procedures for handling emergency fixes - those urgent situations where something breaks and needs immediate repair. It specifically wants to know if these emergency changes are properly documented and approved by the right people, even if that approval happens after the fix is made due to the urgency.

Proper emergency change procedures protect your company from both security risks and compliance violations. Without them, emergency fixes can introduce vulnerabilities that go unnoticed, create audit failures that jeopardize certifications, and lead to finger-pointing when something goes wrong. Strong procedures build customer confidence by showing you can handle crises professionally while maintaining security standards.

The biggest mistake is having no process at all, with engineers making emergency changes without any documentation or review. Another common error is requiring the same lengthy approval process for emergencies as regular changes, which defeats the purpose and leads to people bypassing the system entirely during real crises.