Two Reasons Why Change Management is Necessary

Change is inevitable this is something learned in life and in business. But, important and unstoppable as it is, it can also be very stressful. Most organizations who have gone through change can attest to the troubles they experienced with it. This is where change management comes in and it is the reason why it is so important to business transitions. Here are two big reasons why change management is necessary: It Is Going Make Change Go Smoother Change can be a turbulent time for a company. Change management tools can help decrease the stress and make things smoother for the people involved. In fact, it is one of the main goals of the process. This includes taking things a step at a time. It should also involve proper planning and goal setting. Each goal set needs to be realistic, time oriented, and specific. Planning and taking action is also necessary because without it, plans are going to go nowhere. It Provides Employee Support Employees are often the ones who are most affected by change. They will require training, especially when the company is introducing a new business strategy or if new equipment is brought in. Support is necessary and it involves helping individuals cope with the changes better. It is also going to help increase the percentage of buy-in among employees. A great buy-in is necessary if organizational change is to succeed. Without it, companies are only going to be met with a lot of resistance and negativity from their workers. Termination and hiring, in relation to transition, can also be handled with the help of a change management group. For companies that focus on providing services, change management can also make it so that clients are provided the support they need. There may be transitions in how things are processed and clients do need to be made aware of these changes

Reasons for Change Management Author: Uma A Ilango

Reasons for

Change Management

Change management is a multifaceted area that has several definitions. Depending upon what the particular situation requires, this way of coping involves an individual's ability to look back at previous experiences with a

sense of structure, as well as coping with the problems associated with it for the very first time. This area is defined in several ways, beginning with a specialty area of practice, a method of control, it's two necessary definitions, and what it contains. Each of these definitions explains the reason why this area of expertise is a necessity, and how it can be used to create harmony in your organization. A Specialty Area of Practice You will find many consultants who offer independent services in the management of change for their clients. The title they use to describe their services, whether they say they use change management practices or are agents of this difference, points to companies that do not have any internal leader to guide their employees in the affects of the differences they are approaching or have already had experience with. These consultants come in droves of hundreds and may either help their clients to take the necessary steps needed to grow, or to systematically handle the steps that are yet to come. A Method of Control Being ahead of the curve is an important step in that, so ensuring that a company has the latest systems and technology to keep track of what differences need to occur is a must. Most people in these fields are familiar with version control, and the name change management has been a new label. Companies have

various areas where controls exist that are much like it. There are many requirements imposed on companies for keeping track of any differences in the system, and many companies are familiar with the processes and what is necessary to continue to maintain running smoothly.

Two Definitions of

Change Management

When the political and social structure is unstable, and the tides of the economy are shifting, legislation makes new rules or the actions of competitors create the need to do something different, these are all situations that a company cannot control. This is also the first definition of change management which involves

the surrounding environment that a company cannot manage. The second definition is a company's ability to make these differences occur based upon their own managed, planned or systematic methods. What it Contains When a practice is made, there are various tools, methods, skills, models, techniques and other forms of information that are required. The practice that requires professionals to focus on change

management is responsible for these instruments of information. There are several fields that this information is drawn from such as sociology, industrial engineering, the study of organizational and human behavior, psychology, economics, and business administration. Article Source: http://www.articlesbase.com/management-articles/reasons-for-change-management912976.html About the Author: Uma Ilango is a programmer from profession. She writes regulary at Bigarticlepool.com. Thousands of new articles are added every month.

Reasons for Change Management

During an presentation about Project Management Practices that I recently gave at the UK Alliance Day, we were discussing the reasons for a good change management process. Some of these, Ive mentioned in a previous post:
1. Accurate reflect that there has been a change to the contracturally agreed on specifications/requirements. I think this is the best excuse to enforce this process with the customer. 2. Recognition/approval to potential impact on timing and budget. Your developers should be made (painfully) aware that agreeing to changes, cost money. Regardless of whether they can be accomodated (in the timing allowed), you are adding value and that should be captured and recognized. 3. Sets precedence for further changes If you blindly accept changes, then it is harder to get it stopped once it gets going. The customer is apt to say, Well, you made these other changes (which may have been bigger). Why not this little one more?

Notifications
I also advocate that Customer Change Notifications/Approvals. Even if you dont intend to charge the customer, the change should be documented, the cost of that change estimated and included on that notification, as well as a separate spot to indicate charge to the customer (even if it is zero).

A couple other reasons

I got feedback from the audience that there are a couple other reasons to follow this process:
1. Change may just not be worth it By formalizing the process, you give the customer (and/or your developer) to determine that it just isnt worth the hassle to make the change including documenting it and getting the necessary approval. In that case, youve probably saved yourself some time and effort. 2. You might just get paid for it. Must admit that Id probably hadnt given this one enough consideration. So, you may just want to present Change Notification with the charge included and only zero it out if the customer pushes back. Even then, you established that you are providing extra value to the customer.

What say you?

Getting the feedback from my presentations, reminded me that I should do a better job in these blog posts to ask your thoughts and opinions. Do you have a formalized Change Management process? If so, what do your find effective (or not)?

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The course organizational management has many benefits. It helps to develop or enhance management skills. The curriculum teaches how to effectively manage the human and fiscal resources of private businesses, non-profit organizations, and public

agencies.Your studies will give you an in-depth understanding of the structure, culture, and behavior of organizations. You will explore current styles and methods of leadership and the vital role that human resources managers play. The latest marketing tools and strategic planning techniques will also be featured. In addition, you will examine the financial considerations of for-profit and not-forprofit organizations, and how organizations can use changing technologies to enhance growth.

Why is Change Management important?

Most projects need people to do something different before they can realise their benefits. This may be to use of new or different technology, changes to business processes, work with new people, or do something different. Most project managers know that this can be one of the more difficult aspects of managing a project but many project management methodologies are silent on this or take a fairly superficial approach. PRINCE2 admits that it does not cover this area at all.

A number of recent studies have confirmed the importance of Change Management.

A 2002 McKinsey study showed that the Return on Investment for a project was over four times higher when Change Management was included in the initiative. This study covered about 40 organisations. A 2004 survey by PriceWaterhouse Coopers, revealed an undeniable correlation between project performance, .... and change management. This study covered about 200 organisations. Discussing a 2007 survey of over 400 organisations across the world - Projects with excellent change management programs met or exceeded objectives 88% of the time, while projects with poor change management met or exceeded objectives only 17% of the time." - Tim Creasey, Prosci's Centre for Change Management

These surveys have reached a similar conclusion. Where a project that uses Change Management the return on investment is about four times higher than one that doesn't. Benefits of Change Management

Improved Return on Investment - faster speed of adoption, improved take up rates and higher proficiency; change management drives project ROI Cost avoidance - poorly managing change is costly to the project and the organisation; change management is a cost avoidance tactic Risk mitigation - individuals, the project and the organization are all put at risk when change is poorly managed; change management is a tool to mitigate risks Benefits realisation - the benefits of many projects ultimately depend on people doing their jobs differently; change management provides benefits realisation Meeting objectives - data shows that projects with effective change management in place are more likely to meet objectives, stay on schedule and stay on budget; change management increases the probability of meeting objectives Organisational flexibility. Organisations that are skilled in change management are able to make more and faster changes with less disruption; change management increases organisational adaptability. Increase your organisations capability to maximise the returns from Projects and Change through your attendance at one of our Change Management courses.

Why Study Management?

0 Why Study Management Feb 19, 2009 by Rashid Javed You may be wondering why you need to study management. If you are an accounting major, a marketing major, or an major other than management, you maynot understand how studying management may help you in your career. We can explain the value of studying management bylooking at the universality of the management, the reality of work, and the rewards and challenges of being a manager. The Universality of Management: Just how universal is the need of management in organizations? We can say with certainty that management is needed in all types and sizes of organizations, at all organizational levels and in all organizational work areas, andin all organizations, no matter what country they are located in. This is known as the universality of management. Managers in all these settings will plan, organize, lead, and control. However this is not to say that management is done the same way. The differences in what a supervisor in a software

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applications testingfacility at Microsoft does versus what the CEO of Microsoft does are a matter of degree and emphasis, not of function. Because both are managers, bothwill plan, organize, lead, and control, but how they do so will differ. Since management is universally needed in all organizations, we have a vested interest in improving the way organizations are managed. Why? we interact with organizations every single day of our lives. Does it frustrate you when you have to spend three hours in department of motor vehicles office to get your driver\'s license renewed? Are you irritated when non of the sales persons in a department store seems interested to help you? Do you get annoyed when you call an airline three times andtheir sales representatives quote you three different prices for the same trip? Theses are all examples of problems created by poor management. Organizationsthat are well managed develop a loyal customer base, grow, and prosper. Those that are poorly managed find...

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Why is Change Management so important?

1. It increases project success (it has been found that most often the reason for project failure is resistance of people and bad management of the human element in the project). 2. The success of a project is not only related to good strategy or good technical management. Motivation and skills of the team are also important. 3. Change management is of strategic importance, without which companies cannot exist. Their ability to change and adapt quickly brings enormous market advantages.

What is the Importance of Change Management?

Need to understand the importance of change management and want practical standards and best practices for information management governance and accountability?

The change management process provides a disciplined process forintroducing changes into the production environment with minimal disruption to ongoing operations. It should:

Provide an authorization and trackingprocesses to ensure only approved changes are deployed; Require a configuration management process to assess the impact of change on all potential configuration items (CI); Require release management to package the changes for successful deployment with minimal disruption to production.

What is the importance of change management? Change is defined as anythinghardware, software, system components, services, documents, or processesthat is deliberately introduced into the production environment and which may affect a service level agreement (SLA) or otherwise affect the functioning of the environment or one of its components.

All changes falling under this definition should be addressed by the managing change management process as changes may:

Affect multiple users; Potentially disrupt business-critical services; Involve hardware(such as servers or networking equipment) or softwaremodifications; Affect data stored and hence the data management, data movement and data presentation environments; and Involve operational and process modificationsthat affect multiple users.

What happens if we don't have a change management process? Information management is so critical to the ongoing operation of a that it is impossible to predict the impact of not adhering to a disciplined change management process. Issues can occur with:

Data storage, e.g. database changes are introduced that cause applications to fail. Lack of a clearly defined change management process makes it difficult for the production support team to troubleshoot and resolve the issue-Much "downtime" can be anticipated; Data movement e.g. information continuity may be compromised e.g. a change request might require changing a data feed into a data warehouse. The impact analysis did not identify that this feed is required to update an external data target on a monthly basis. After three months of processing data, it is suddenly discovered, and, it is also discovered that there is no way to recover the data; Security, e.g.

New code might be introduced without adequate security testing thus allowing potential security breaches to occur; or

New data storage structures may be created but are not added to the database back-up and restore procedure, or, are not tested, thus leading to potential data loss in event of future failure;

Metadata, e.g.

New software may be added without updating the metadata repository, resulting in erroneous or incomplete analysis for future projects; or

New processes may be added without considering metadata required for operational monitoring thus resulting in an incomplete picture of daily operations

Data quality e.g.

Data feeds may be changed without consideration of data quality, this causing processes to fail or causing significant increase in data steward error reporting; or

Data feeds may be changed and everything processes OK except that the new data is not sourced from a reliable system of record and business analysis reporting/decision making is based on erroneous data.

Documentation e.g. changes may be introduced into production with out up-todate documentation thus causing misery for the production support team and time loss responding to production operation incidents Configuration management, e.g.changes may be introduced into production with out updating the configuration management database thus creating future problems for production support and change management impact analysis.

What is the solution? The importance of change management cannot be stressed enough. it provides a disciplined process for introducing changes into the production environment with minimal disruption to ongoing operations. Summary... The change management process provides a disciplined methodology for introducing changes into the production environment with minimal disruption to ongoing operations. All stakeholders need to be aware of the importance of change management.

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