One way to make sure that you are following your change procedures is to use an automation solution for any firewall configuration updates.
Automation can also help prevent mistakes in the firewall setup process. As 99 percent of firewall breaches are caused by errors in configuration, breaches aren’t caused by flaws in the technology, but by flaws in the humans using it.
These same automation tools can also help in configuring other network equipment, such as routers and switches.