What Is a Disruptive Change?

Microsoft defines a “disruptive change” to an online service as a change that requires a customer or administrator to take action to avoid significant degradation to the normal operation of the online service.

Examples of disruptive changes include the following:

• Customer must upgrade Internet Explorer (or other supported Web browser) or Office from one version to another on client computer(s)
• Customer must modify tools or line-of-business applications as a result of a change to documented interfaces
• Customer must respond to Microsoft removing or deprecating existing service functionality
• Customer must respond to a change of system requirements
• Customer must respond to a significant change in user experience (as determined by Microsoft, for example, a significant change in user interface or a significant change in user interaction or workflow) by providing training, documentation, or other assistance to end users.

Nondisruptive changes generally do not have significant impact on customers. But even though most organizations will not be affected by a nondisruptive change, a particular customer may experience problems with a change if it has customized the user interface used to access the service or has particularly rigid users.