GRC 10.1 Parameter values - I don't want to open the system to change them in PRD

Some parameters need to have different values between systems in the landscape (like plug ins) or need to be changed temporarily. For example, the restriction that only one request can be open per user may have to change temporarily for a mass update of all users.

Our company policies prevent the PRD or QA system from being "opened" for configuration updates. Is there a way to programmatically change the value of parameters without opening the system? We'd prefer not to do the transport option since we want the values in the upstream systems to remain the same.