Change management is often considered a “nice to have,” if not completely discarded for a project’s communications plan. The reason for this is that many people don’t fully understand what change management is and how it can be useful. However, change management has the advantage of being applicable to a wide range of business processes, which makes it a valuable asset.
The versatility of change management can benefit entire organizations when considered strategically as a business capability. This post outlines how structured change management as a core business capability benefits other business processes.
Project management
Project management’s origins can be traced as far back as the early 20th century. The formalized profession launched with the Project Management Institute in 1969. Change management has different meanings depending on context. The first refers to the project manager’s responsibility to protect the baseline definition of the project from alteration. The second refers to structured processes focused on the adoption of project outcomes, reducing change friction.
It’s possible to resolve both problem contexts through structured change management. The key benefit provided by change management is through the definition of success, a shared understanding of roles played by key project participants, and measurements of project health. Prosci’s research proves the value of intentionally structured change management to projects and an organization. While their change management framework is arguably the most well-known, many other methodologies exist. I plan to write about change management frameworks in another post.
Program management
Program management is the strategic planning, management, and execution of projects. The change management analog is called change portfolio management, whose goal is to evaluate change impact at the organizational level. When paired with program management, change portfolio management provides strategically valuable data for project planning and prioritization. Metrics include change-related impact, risk, and saturation.
For example, in an organization, Human Resources is planning projects for performance management and Information Technology, a separate project for the consolidation of data storage. The risk to both projects is high if individual adoption isn’t realized. A portfolio view of change management draws attention to projects that, if not strategically executed with change management, could place both project outcomes at risk.
Product management
Product management is cross-functional, by definition. In the blog post “The Product Manager’s Guide to Change Management,” Sofia Quintero states
“…there is a lot of work involved in managing change, this is why, as a product leader, introducing change is hard. Not only do you have to deliver the product and all the work involved with it, but you also have to deliver change and all the extra activities required to make the changes work.”
Sofia Quintero
Without intentional development of change management, product management success will depend on individual capability and experience. Sofia’s blog post is an excellent primer on the fundamentals of change management.
IT Service Management
Change management, in the context of IT Service Management, is a documented process that applies to a service management lifecycle framework. Frequently called Technical Change Management, the focus is on the risk and impact on IT services and systems rather than the adoption of change by users or individuals. (I’ll likely write a whole different article on this topic.)
Change management capabilities and technical change management intersect when IT Service changes require any action by an end-user. For example, the IT Services I owned in former roles were rated highly in user feedback surveys. I attribute this success to trust building with end users through the use of Change management in conjunction with IT Service Management best practices, including Technical Change Management.
Change management applies to other client-facing capabilities too, such as customer success, client support, and many more. They will detailed in another post.
Conclusion
Cross-functional applicability is change management’s greatest strength when applied strategically. I’ve described how project, program, product, and IT Service management all benefit from change management. To learn more about how I can help with your change initiatives, click the button below to schedule some time to talk.