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

How has your organization defined "success" for your change project? Remember that this definition should not only describe a project that is successfully implemented, but also a change that is successfully and permanently adopted throughout the organization. Describe what success will look like in two or three bullet points, using a format similar to the one that follows:

1.

2

3

If you are using the case study, you may have defined success as:

If you are using your current project and you weren't able to define what success looks like for the change in your organization, put this book down. Before you continue, you need to talk to your leadership team and ensure that there is a mutual understanding of how your organization will define and measure success. Go ahead, I'll be here when you get back.

There are five major components of every Change Management program. They are referred to as the Pillars of Change because they support the adoption of the change. More importantly, they support people throughout the implementation of the change. Every pillar is designed to make it easier for people within the organization to adopt the change, shown as follows:

The Pillars of Change support the successful implementation of change

Although the preceding figure makes it look as though each pillar is independent, they are actually all integrated. The activities you conduct in one pillar impact the activities you need to conduct in all of the other pillars. You'll also notice that the pillars are round. This is because, as we will discuss in later chapters, Change Management activities form a loop of evaluation and continuous improvement. No matter how good you become at creating Change Management plans, you will always need to gather feedback throughout the project and use it to update and improve your scheduled activities.

If you were to view the Pillars of Change from a bird's-eye view, they would look a bit like the following:

The Pillars of Change are integrated and cyclical

Let's take a minute now to briefly define each pillar:

In 2008, IBM Global Business Services published the results of their Global Change Management Study in a presentation called Making Change Work. With input from over 1,500 project practitioners from 15 countries and 21 industries, Making Change Work provides valuable insights into how Change Management contributes to the success of projects.

One of the most troubling findings of the survey was that only 41 percent of projects fully met their objectives. This means that the project you are currently working on potentially has less than a 50 percent chance of being successful. That's a scary number. The following figure is an illustration to these statistics:

Less than half of all projects are successful (IBM Global Business Services, Making Change Work, 2008)

A McKinsey study conducted in the same year surveyed over 3,000 executives from various countries and industries (The McKinsey Quarterly, McKinsey Global Survey Results: Creating organizational transformations, July 2008). Their results were even worse. Only a third of executives surveyed said that their organizations successfully achieved change.

When the IBM study's participants were asked about the major challenges they faced in implementing change, the overwhelming response was that "soft" factors such as employee attitudes and corporate culture posed more of a challenge than "hard" factors such as processing change and technical barriers Refer to the following figure for an illustration of these statistics:

Many of the barriers to successful change are "soft" factors (IBM Global Business Services, Making Change Work, 2008)

Luckily, they also found that there were ways to mitigate these challenges. Ten critical factors to successfully bring about change were identified. All of them form part of a good Change Management program, shown as follows:

Most of the critical factors for successful change are part of a good Change Management program (IBM Global Business Services, Making Change Work, 2008)

The Pillars of Change we just reviewed cover seven of the ten critical success factors. The following list shows which success factors are included in each pillar:

Furthermore, the top 20 percent of organizations as defined by project success rate reported an 80 percent project success rate. These organizations were deemed "Change Masters", and had a significantly higher rate of success than the average company, shown as follows:

Organizations that excel at change have a much higher rate of project success (IBM Global Business Services, Making Change Work, 2008)

If these facts and figures have energized you to build a strong Change Management program and strive for the success of your project in your organization, but have left you feeling a bit overwhelmed about how to start, consider this conclusion from the McKinsey study (7):

That is exactly what this book is designed to help you achieve.

Change Management is an important driver of project success, but the Change Management team does not operate in a box on its own.

Most IT projects have four main teams:

For the project to be successful, all four teams must work together. No team can function as a silo. Many projects will show the relationship between the teams in the following way:

The traditional view of project teams has the sub-teams working in silos

The preceding figure suggests that the functional and technical teams are in their own silos, with the Change Management and project management teams working separately across them.

However, I believe that the project team is more accurately represented like the following

All of the sub-teams on a project team should be integrated to deliver success

The preceding figure shows integration among all four teams. Each one influences the activities of the others and none can successfully work on their own.

For each box in the following chart, list at least one way that the project team on the left can influence the activities of the project team listed at the top.

The best way to prepare for the arguments against Change Management that your colleagues may raise is to practice your responses. Before moving on to the next chapter, read the following questions that I often receive from clients. Think about how you will respond if someone in your organization asks something similar. Remember to make your answers specific to your organization and project.

People who do not understand Change Management often question whether it is truly necessary to dedicate time, money, and staff to developing and executing a good Change Management program. By now, you should be able to meet their objections with confidence by providing the following: