Change Management Strategy

Why

The purpose of this section is to assist you in drafting your change management plan. The change management plan is your framework for managing the people side of change throughout the lifecycle of your project and post Go Live.

How

The Sponsor and Project team should meet and discuss the questions below as part of a change management strategy exercise. The answers you collect and collate, along with the completion of additional activities found in this section, will help you build out the framework for your Change Management Plan.

1. What is the Objective of the change?
2. What is the Scope of the change?
3. How will we Measure the Success of the change? – See Success Metrics for more details on how to define your metrics.
4. Who is being impacted by the change?
5. What is being changed (processes, systems, job roles, etc.)?

   You will not need to 'break this answer down' into discrete components at this stage. After the Analysis and Design Workshops lead by your Sparkrock Application Consultants, more granularity around these types of changes can be defined and included in your Change Management Plan.

6. What is the timeline, and does it compete with other initiatives? If so, what are those initiatives?
7. What is the perceived need for this change among employees and managers?
8. How have past changes been managed?
9. Is there a shared vision of the change for the organization?
10. How much change is going on right now?
11. Will regions, divisions, or groups be impacted differently than others?
12. Were certain groups advocating a different solution to the same problem?
13. Are some groups heavily invested with how things are done today?
14. Do we need a Communication Strategy & Plan? – See the Communication Plan for more details on how to develop this plan.
15. Do we need a Training Strategy & Plan? – See the Training Plan for more details on how to develop this plan.
16. Do we need ‘change promoters and activators’ to assist with managing the change across the organization? If so, who should be a part of that change management team?

    Activators - Managers and supervisors with employees affected by the change play a key role in helping their employees through the transition process. These managers and supervisors are the preferred senders of change messages related to how a change personally impacts employees

    Promoters - Any senior or mid-level manager with responsibility for employees or systems impacted by the change. In this context, a sponsor is defined as any business leader whose support and active engagement is necessary for the change to be successful. 

    In the development of your change strategies it is recommended that you form a Change Management Team. The team members should represent a variety of functions, departments and levels in the organization. They should have excellent communication skills, business influence, be committed to the change, understand the business, and be a team player. The team does not have to be working on your project full time but must be able to commit some time to the project. 

Continue to Change Impact (Risk)

Return to Preparing for Change in the Change Management guide