220-1102 Operational Procedures Practice Question
A technician is scheduled to apply security patches to a server during a maintenance window. The change was approved as a standard change. Midway through the patching, the technician discovers that one of the patches is causing a critical line-of-business application to fail. According to change management best practices, what should the technician do first?
⚠ Common exam trap
It's easy for candidates to confuse 'standard change' with 'no need for rollback planning' and choose to continue patching or reboot, when in fact even standard changes require a documented rollback procedure that must be followed first upon failure.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Consult the change plan for rollback procedures
Change management best practices require that any deviation from the planned change—such as a patch causing a critical application failure—must be handled by first consulting the change plan for documented rollback procedures. This ensures a controlled, pre-approved method to revert the server to its previous stable state, minimizing downtime and risk. The technician should not improvise or escalate without following the approved plan.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Continue applying all remaining patches as planned
Why it's wrong here
Continuing to apply all remaining patches as planned would be reckless because the failure of the current patch indicates a compatibility or integrity problem that must be resolved first. Installing additional patches could compound the fault, introduce new conflicts, and make the system state harder to roll back or isolate. Standard change management practice requires halting the patching sequence at the first sign of failure and executing the established backout plan, not pushing forward blindly.
- ✓
Consult the change plan for rollback procedures
Why this is correct
Consulting the change plan for rollback procedures is the correct first action because a standard change is supposed to include a documented backout plan that defines the exact steps to reverse the problematic patch. This plan allows the technician to restore the application's functionality in a controlled, predictable manner while avoiding improvised actions that risk additional downtime or data corruption. The goal is to return the system to its known-good state, not to complete the patching window at all costs.
- ✗
Immediately inform all users of the outage
Why it's wrong here
Immediately informing all users of the outage is premature because the technician has not yet stabilized the situation or confirmed the scope of the failure. A standard change plan typically includes a communication strategy that specifies who should be notified, when, and with what level of detail, to avoid unnecessary alarm and confusion. The priority is to first consult the change plan and begin the rollback, then notify users with accurate information about the recovery effort.
- ✗
Reboot the server and hope the application recovers
Why it's wrong here
Rebooting the server and hoping the application recovers is an improvised action that ignores the documented change management process and the specific backout plan. A reboot may fail to reverse the patch installation, and it can also introduce extra downtime, disrupt active sessions, or even trigger disk or service corruption when a known faulty patch is still present. The technician should follow the change plan's rollback steps to ensure a deterministic recovery, rather than relying on an uncontrolled reboot as a fix.
Go deeper
Related to this question
Learn chapter
Windows Services Management
Key term
Change management
Change management is the structured process of planning, approving, implementing, and reviewing changes to IT systems to minimize risk and disruption.
Key term
Security
Security in IT is the practice of protecting systems, networks, and data from unauthorized access, damage, or theft.
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
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