Practical Change Management for IT Projects: Transform your IT project and make change stick with this step-by-step guide with this book and ebook

Over the years, Change Management developed a reputation of being "fluffy". Many technical and business people thought of Change Management as being all about rainbows and unicorns, holding hands, and singing happy songs.

In an effort to combat this perspective, the process of Change Management became more organized. Consulting firms developed methodologies, processes, and tools. Companies conducted research about the importance of Change Management to achieve project success. New organizations were formed that provided Change Management training and certifications.

All of these activities greatly improved the reputation of Change Management and added rigor and credibility to the profession. Along the way though, many people lost sight of the fact that at its core, Change Management is all about people and people aren't just intellectual beings. They're emotional, as well. Therefore, a well-rounded Change Management program must focus on the emotional...

Just as the Change Management team is not a silo and must integrate with the other project teams, it's important to remember that your project is not a silo and must integrate with other teams and departments across your organization. While it might be tempting to charge full steam ahead with absolute focus on the change you are trying to implement, you will have much greater success if you keep in mind the needs of other teams and work together to find mutually beneficial solutions to cross-team issues.

As a starting point, we'll look at three groups that you are likely to need to work with throughout the project.

As mentioned in Chapter 1, What is Change Management?, organization design focuses on how the structure of your organization needs to adapt to support the change you are implementing.

Organization design is unique among the Pillars of Change because many organizations wait until after the change has been implemented to address it. The problem with this approach is that by the time the project is complete, the team is often disbanded before they are able to come back and address this topic.

I strongly recommend that you incorporate organization design into your project. To get you started, we will walk through a number of extremely important concepts that you should keep in mind throughout your project. We will look at these ideas now so you can think about how to apply them to your change program as you read the rest of the chapters.

By thinking through the following questions, you will be able to develop a high-level organization design strategy that will address the basic...

Before you do any organization design work, it is important that you know who your Human Resources partner is. Depending on how your organization is structured, you may have one Human Resources partner who will work with all impacted stakeholders, or you may have multiple Human Resources and business partners who support the various business units.

There are a lot of rules and regulations when it comes to employment, and if you're not familiar with them, it's easy to make mistakes. Become friends with your HR partner and talk to them often. If your project doesn't have a HR partner, arrange for one before you read any of the other questions in this section.

My Human Resources partner is: _________________________________________________

There are two kinds of job descriptions you need to think about: descriptions of new jobs you are in the process of hiring for, and descriptions of existing jobs. If you have open job postings that need to be filled, it's a good idea to review them. Will the description of the job still be accurate once the change is implemented? Do you need to change the job description to ensure you are attracting applicants with the skills required to work in the new organization, rather than the old one? Updating job descriptions for positions you are in the process of filling helps you build an organization with the skill sets necessary to successfully adopt the change.

You also need to think about the job descriptions of people who are currently in the organization. The greater the change you are implementing, the more likely it is that peoples' jobs will change. In the example of our case study, implementing a new purchasing system is likely to change the jobs...

Think about the change you are implementing. Are there any jobs in your organization that will change significantly as a result? List these jobs in the following chart. Explain what activities they are doing today, versus the activities they will be responsible for in the future.

Keep in mind that this should be an ongoing exercise. As you get further in the project, you may discover new jobs that are impacted by the change. Continue to add them to the chart and discuss them with your HR partner:

As you look at how the change will impact the business, ask yourself if you have enough people to do the work. Although changes such as new technology and improved business processes are typically designed to make processes more efficient and reduce work, this isn't always the actual outcome. Sometimes the amount of work increases, or steps are added that make an activity take longer. At times, responsibilities are shifted from one department to another, increasing one team's workload.

In these situations, you need to think about whether you need to hire more people to compensate for the additional work. When you decide to hire additional people, remember to hire for the skills they will need after the change is implemented, not the skills people need to do the job today.

It is also possible that entirely new sets of activities will need to be completed as a result of the change. In this situation, you may not have anyone...

While you are implementing the project, you will have a project team that is responsible for planning, developing, and rolling out the change. What happens when the project is over? Who becomes the ongoing owner of the new processes and tools?

The ongoing owner is known as your run team, and the earlier you begin planning for this team, the better. If you're implementing a new computer system, your run team will be responsible for things such as system maintenance, deciding when to put in place upgrades, and reviewing the need for customizations as the organization's needs change. The run team can also be responsible for non-technical activities such as updating business processes, standard operating procedures, and training documentation if the system changes. Other responsibilities might include maintaining ongoing relations with the software vendor and regulating system access and security.

You may choose to build your run team from existing employees...

Your support organization is responsible for handling ongoing questions, comments, and concerns from the organization. These responsibilities might be handled by your run team, your IT team, or a dedicated help desk. As with the run team, it is important to identify the members of this team early in the project so that they can be involved from the initial phases and learn about the new tools and processes as they are developed.

In this chapter, we covered three main strategic areas that you should keep in mind throughout your project: Change Management frameworks, integrating with other teams, and organization design. By applying these concepts to your Change Management program, you will improve your ability to successfully implement the change.

Keep these checklists somewhere visible to remind yourself of the key activities and questions for each area.

Change Management frameworks: Have you remembered to use data and facts to appeal to your stakeholders' intellectual side? Give their rider motivation to exert the will power necessary to adopt the change.

Integrating with other teams: Have you...