Change Management: A Change Management Process Advancement, could do you good..

Change Management: Business Cases for Advancing Change Management Process Capabilities.  

Benefits of Process Improvement:   Advanced Change Management, is about managing staff expectations around changes. Change is dynamic , and a clear plan must be in place to educate, inform, and specifically call out what changes as a result of this effort and what is needed to be successful in our implementation as well as to prepare those affected to align to what the important elements are that this improvement will deliver, and why we are doing this.  Its best to hold regular, continuous communications based upon feedback to align and manage support for the initiative, its status, issues, discoveries, and milestones and check in frequently with them to be sure they are still feeling confident and comfortable with what is happening.

• Change Approval Board (CAB) is viewed as an integration point to mitigate risk and lower impact, not stop progress.
• Clear Roles for Change Management Process and Change Management Changes allow Enterprise disciplines to lower cost, reduce risk, and speed time to resolution with less business impact.   
• Systems of Record, Data Integrity and Configuration Management are kept in sync with the speed of change.  "Configuration Management" integrates with Change Management such that what is built, and dependent is current: 
• Change/Configuration Management LINKAGE begins from creation of a new application or service, and continues through the Change Management Cycle
• Key Change Management Data references and depends on change data plus whats running where and who owns it (people, process and systems) 

Challenges of Advancing Change Management: 

• Lots of moving parts-  Organizational change is a constant, Technology is constantly advancing, Business needs are always changing. 
• For IT groups "Change Management" is often viewed as something else to be done and struggles for time among, "Problem", "Incident", and "IT Project Management" 
• Some are so busy fighting fires from lack of standardization that proactive change management is viewed as a future rather than present desire, unless its value is expressly articulated and supported by IT Executive Managers.  

DEFINE Approach: We have Change Management, understand the business need, and take a lens of other stakeholders to the project, what is the initial description of the problem to be solved with the improvement effort?

1. What is the preliminary project scope
1. What are the desired performance improvements in the business?
2. What is the preliminary business case for the change in process
3.  What is the process vision statement (what changes as a result of this effort and why is it important now?  Work with key executive stakeholders to establish the "to be" statement )
   
2. Developing preliminary stakeholder communication plans? Who is involved? 
1. What are the key checkpoints for input go/no go decisions
2. Who are our key stakeholders?
3. What are the preliminary timelines, milestones, requirements, and budgets?
4. What are the evolving communication, training needs and implementation/roll out plans?

Output of this work would produce a business case includes information on:

1. Initial Target, process and project scope
2. High level schedule of milestones per phase/deliverable
3. Initial resource requirements
4. Initial budget requirements
5. Potential project risks
6. Expected ROI 

MEASURE OR VERIFY:   What are current best practices? What are some innovative best practices?  - competitive information often helps brainstorming  engages executive attention 

1. What needs to change in the new process? 
2. What are the present state measurements to explore what an improved state should take?
3. Determine importance criteria prioritization to determine what the current scope of “could be” change options for the process?
4. Use brainstorming techniques  with stakeholder groups to capture all possibilities then narrow down to 2 - 3 of best stakeholder improvement options  Design “could be” processes based on the criteria
5. What evidence validates the “could be” process options being explored meets criteria? Socialize with all relevant stakeholders the 2 - 3 “could be” processes mapped out and get feedback 

Develop a “to be” option from the 2 - 3 “could be” options based on: Which best meets the needs. Which gets most stakeholder positive support. Which process, will meet all stakeholder needs and business  objectives.

BEST PRACTICE/PROCESS TEMPLATE AIDS: 

• Change Management Plan Template: is a nice start from Project Management Docs: Includes a general Project Introduction, Change Management Approach, Definitions Document, Change Control Board, Clear Roles and Responsibilities, and the general Change Control Process. 
• CISCO has a great Change Management Process:  this white paper is a very simple standard process form, with guides on the overall roles, responsibilities, and key elements of the change process. 

Love to hear your comments!  

• How is your Change Management Practice?  
• Have you had experiences in Change Management that worked REALLY WELL?  
• Challenges you overcame?  

Share comments, questions or experiences in comments below. 

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Dawn C Khan is an ITIL Professional with a passion for Best Practices with over $30M+ in Program Savings. Rich experience in Global Fortune 500 Companies in Computer Entertainment, High Technology, Insurance and Healthcare. 10 year Board Member of Denver Metro Help Desk Institute. Enthusiastic about helping others recognize positive Business Process Re-engineering and ITIL Service Operations and Service Management best practices that extend innovation and opportunity or help companies to deliver quality through IT People, Process, and Technology. 

LinkedIN: DawnCKhan             Twitter: @dawnckhan