Change Management

(OBJ 1.3)

Change Management

• Orchestrated strategy to transition teams, departments, and organizations from existing state to a more desirable future state
  • Necessary in modern business environments due to constant changes
  • Change is essential but requires
    • Precision
    • Planning
    • Structured approach
  • Ensures changes are properly controlled, planned, and integrated to avoid disruptions
  • Otherwise, your employers could resist or even fear that given change.
• Change management ensures seamless integration of changes into existing architecture and processes
  • Maximize the positive outcomes that we're seeking to achieve while minimizing any potential disruption.

Challenges of Change

• Unplanned or poorly coordinated changes can lead to resistance and confusion
• Even seemingly simple changes, like software upgrades, can cause issues
• Existing processes become disrupted by changes, impacting efficiency

Change Approval and Assessment

• Remember that you can't simply decide to install a piece of software or change a given configuration on a system without going through an appropriate approval process.
• Changes must be approved and assessed
• Organizational processes and procedures for change approval
• Assessment evaluates value and potential disruptions
• Change Advisory Board (CAB)
  • Body of representatives from various parts of an organization that is responsible for evaluation of any proposed changes
  • Perform due diligence of the proposed change
  • Evaluates proposed changes before approval, assesses viability, impacts, and alignment with objectives

Change Owner

• Individual or team responsible for initiating change request
• Advocates for the change, details reasons, benefits, and challenges
• Key in presenting the case for the change

Stakeholders

• Individuals or teams with a vested interest in the proposed change
• Directly impacted or involved in assessment and implementation
• These individuals or teams must be
  • Consulted
  • Their feedback considered
  • Their concerns addressed before implementing change
• Include technical, business, and end-user stakeholders
• Example:
  • When I push out the software update to my server, it's going to require us to reboot that server which will have that change to be able to take effect.
  • That reboot may take about 5 minutes to occur, that means that none of our users around the world will be able to use our service during that 5 minutes of downtime.
  • Train end-users on how to use new features
  • Send messages ahead of time to warn users for a potential downtime

Impact Analysis

• Integral part of the Change Management process
• Essential before implementing proposed changes
• Assesses potential fallout, immediate effects, long-term impacts
• Identifies challenges and prepares for maximizing benefits
• Ask and answer the following questions:
  • What could go wrong?
  • What would be the immediate effects?
  • How would the long-term operations be impacted?
  • Are there unforeseen challenges that might cause an issue?