Attributes of Effective Change Management
I recently overheard a conversation at a Trade show. A tool reseller was happily informing a potential Customer, that the implementation of their Change Management toolset would ‘transform their operation’ and provide ‘more effective Change Management’ for the Customer’s organization. If only it was that simple.
The effective, controlled and timely implementation of Changes across an organization and its infrastructure requires detailed planning and involvement of personnel at all levels. This document describes some of the primary considerations to ensure success.
Management Sponsorship
The active involvement and sponsorship of senior business and IT executive management is critical to Change Management operational success.
The executive sponsors are responsible for the identification of a clear vision, scope and requirements for Change Management across their enterprise. This will in turn enable them to develop a formal Change Management Policy, which will act as the enabler for Change Management controls and process implementation. The Management team will be responsible for considering how the Change Management Policy will link to other business considerations e.g. future business direction, risk management activities, Security Policy etc.
The management team will also promote the benefits of effective Change Management across the organization.
Embedding Change Management ‘thinking’ into the culture of all personnel across the group is important. The Management team need to carefully consider the effect and challenges that formalized Change Management procedures will introduce to the operational teams during their business as usual activities.
It is essential that the sponsorship board identify, analyse and wherever possible remove barriers for effective Change.
Ownership
Ownership of the Policy, processes and activities is important. As stated above, the management sponsors will own the Change Management Policy. They will subsequently identify clear ownership for the ongoing operational processes and controls required to deliver the benefits identified within the Policy.
Clearly defined roles and responsibilities must be identified and published. Use of structured methods to record activities and responsibilities, for example RACI Matrices (discussed in the Continual Service Improvement volume of the ITIL Lifecycle suite) will greatly aid consistency.
Awareness
It is imperative that all staff understand the importance and benefits that Change Management brings to the enterprise. An initial awareness campaign followed by regular communications will greatly enhance cross organizational knowledge and understanding. Awareness can be achieved in a number of ways, including:
- Poster campaigns
- Change Road Shows
- Development and publication of materials on the corporate Intranet
- Training / familiarization sessions
It is also important that staff understand the negative impacts resulting from their avoidance or deliberate circumvention of the Change management process and the resulting impact they could have on the business.
Formal Training
Staff need to be trained to an appropriate level. In general, most operational staff will only require knowledge gained from the initial / ongoing awareness communications discussed above.
More specialized and closely associated staff will require more detailed and formalized best practice training (e.g. ITIL Practitioner level training). Examples might include the Change / Change Advisory Board teams, Change Champions across the technology functions etc.
It is important to understand if third party vendors and their resources are Change Management aware or trained as appropriate. It is not unreasonable to insist that third parties provide evidence of their own conformity to Change Management best practices and how they will adhere to the Customer’s own internal policy and processes.
Bureaucracy
Development of the processes should carefully consider the balance between heightened controls vs. the organization’s ability to effect Change in a timely manner.
Over officious procedures can lead to delay, business speed to market impact, over complexity and possible process avoidance.
Well structured procedures will improve openness and trust across the organization, contribution and involvement, knowledge sharing, common goal attainment.
Communication
Post go-live, regular ongoing communication is required. As a general rule;
Communications should be sent from a single source e.g. the Change Manager, or in some organizations, the Service Desk. It may not be appropriate for individual technical personnel to send direct, unstructured communications relating to planned Change activities directly to a business audience.
Regular communications should be sent out in a pre-defined standard format to a known timetable e.g. end of day on Thursday relating to the coming weekend / week ahead. Some additional communications may be required e.g. Emergency Change communication.
Communications should be clear and appropriate to the recipient audience e.g. in a language which is understandable and not over technical for business readers.
Interfaces with other processes
Change Management is not a stand-alone process. There are a multitude of links with all other ITIL processes and functions. These need to be clearly identified as part of the operational process and procedure design phase. Processes should articulate both inputs and outputs to and from the Change Management process to other functions and operational practices. Again, the use of RACI Roles and Responsibility matrices should be considered.
Emergency Change
The use of the Emergency Change type should be limited in line with clearly defined definitions. A separate Emergency Change Process should be developed and clearly defined roles and responsibilities for ECAB Emergency Change Advisory Board review and approval.
Emergency Changes are exceptions, low volume (generally less than 5% of all Changes), used to restore critical components / failures, rapid.
Emergency Changes are not last minute Change submissions resulting from bad planning, low priority standard / routine changes, a route to avoid standard procedures / Change Windows.
Tools
To go back to the Vendor’s comment mentioned at the start of this document, a comprehensive Change Management tool can indeed greatly increase the chance of success. Benefits might include;
- Enhanced organizational ability to follow a consistent and effective process flow
- Greater risk / impact / dependency and conflict assessment capability
- Increased organizational visibility
- Improved communication
- Better ability to identify Change Management process deficiencies
- Management monitoring, measurement and reporting capability
Improve, improve, improve…
The Change Management team should proactively work to improve the team’s processes and capabilities. The team should;
- Solicit and act upon feedback from business, IT, Change system and procedure users
- Collate and review Change related data and implement any improvements highlighted
- Understand the impact of change on the business
- Understand the impact of Change on other processes e.g. Incidents generated as a result on implemented Change
- Undertake periodic review of Change Management processes and procedures
To quote the words of Heraclitus (c. 535 BC – 475 BC), ‘The only constant is change’.
A point well made.
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