What must happen before change requests can progress through their states?

For change requests to effectively progress through their states, defining Model State Transition Conditions is essential. These conditions outline the rules and criteria that must be met for a change request to move from one state to another within the workflow. By establishing these conditions, organizations can ensure that their change management process is systematic and adheres to defined guidelines, promoting consistency and reducing the likelihood of errors or unauthorized changes.

When these transition conditions are in place, they help to facilitate the appropriate routing and handling of change requests based on their status, reducing confusion and ensuring that all necessary approvals and checks are completed before a change can move forward. This structured approach is vital in maintaining the integrity of the change management process.

The other options, while important to the overall change management process, do not directly relate to the progression of change requests through their states. For instance, while approval policies are necessary to ensure that changes are authorized, they do not define how a change progresses through its various stages. Similarly, closing incident tickets and validating configuration items are operational steps that may occur during the change process but are not prerequisites for the change request to move through its states.