Current behavior
When “Prevent change creation during maintenance windows” (and the equivalent for freeze windows) is enabled, all Change requests that overlap an active window are blocked at creation time, regardless of change type (including Emergency) or user role. There is no override, exception, or role-based bypass. The only workaround is to temporarily disable the setting globally, which is not acceptable for enterprise governance and audit requirements.

Problem / Impact
This behavior creates a gap for standard ITIL and regulated environments where Emergency Changes must be registered immediately, even when they occur during a maintenance or freeze window, to meet audit, compliance, and traceability requirements. Customers must currently choose between strict window enforcement and the ability to log emergencies correctly.

Requested solution
Provide more granular controls so that customers can:

• Allow Emergency Changes to be created during active maintenance/freeze windows (e.g. emergency-only override), and/or

• Configure role/group-based exceptions (e.g. Change Manager) that can override the block with justification, and/or

• Better support post-factum Emergency Change registration for work that occurred during a window, without disabling window enforcement globally.

Customer expectation
Maintain strong protection against conflicting planned changes during windows, while enabling safe, auditable handling of Emergency Changes in line with ITIL and enterprise change-control practices.