Managing schema and database changes

Howdy folks,  

This isn't necessarily Oracle-specific, but certainly comes into play with Oracle. I'm curious how people here manage changes to their database - mostly around schema and data-level changes, but I suppose configuration parameters, etc. come into play with this now. Do you have a documented change process, something like, "schema changes have to go into dev, then QA, then after QA approves, they go into production?" How do you make those changes? What tools do you use to help manage this process? Do you shepherd that process along, or do the developers drive it?  

As some people here may know, I'm more of an infrastructure person (storage, rac, etc.), and I'm not as familiar with how DBAs manage the process of making these types of changes, and it would be useful for me to understand this (not to mention, I think it might be instructive for other folks here who might be interested in how these things work at other companies). If someone would rather not respond publicly, you can email me privately off-list (mzito_at_gridapp.com), and I'll anonymize and aggregate the results and post them back to the list.  

Thanks,

Matt

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