Abstract: Disclosed herein is a network management apparatus, comprising: a change request acquisition unit configured to acquire a change request that describes information on contents of a change plan relating to a network configuration; a first determination unit configured to determine, based on the information included in the change request, whether or not to perform an automatic approval that approves the change request without notifying an approver of the change request; a risk assessment unit configured to assess, based on the information included in the change request, a risk of implementing a change in accordance with the change request; and a second determination unit configured to determine whether or not to perform the automatic approval based on the risk assessed by the risk assessment unit with respect to the change request for which the automatic approval has not been determined to be performed by the first determination unit.