An approach for generating actionable explanations of change request classifications may be presented. A model may generate features associated with a change request may be disclosed. The model may be trained with historical change requests that have been labeled risky or not risky. The change request may be classified as risky or not risky. Candidate historical change requests with the same classification as the change request and occupying similar feature space as the change request may be identified from a historical change request repository. One or more features which had the most significant impact on the classification may be identified. A candidate historical change request with at least one significant feature impacting classification may be identified.