Top Tips
for Change Management: The First steps of having a successful
change process. by Christo Vermeulen
Implementing
Change Management is much more than a simple process roll-out -- it is a major
strategic undertaking.
Today’s organizations are faced with unending
competition, changing circumstances and increased customer demands more so
within the ever changing IT environment. To remain viable and competitive,
their IT and services organizations must be in complete alignment with the
strategic goals of the organization.
In
businesses, this means that IT has to be a partner in delivering value to the
customer. One of the important challenges of doing this is to ensure that
changes are implemented without disrupting the delivery of that value to the
customer. ITIL Change Management (CM) provides the necessary framework to guide
organizations in meeting this challenge.
While no
methodology can guarantee absolute success, a standardized Change Management
process with clearly defined roles and responsibilities, increases the
likelihood that the business objectives and goals are successfully achieved and
limits the likelihood of embarrassing and costly mistakes in implementation.
ITIL
Change Management is one of the most effective ways to provide stability to the
IT organization. It is the linchpin of any ITIL implementation because it both
controls many of the ITIL processes and also ensures the other processes are
not attempting to work with an unstable environment.
1.
Clarify what Change Management will accomplish in your organization.
Many
corporations struggle with defining ITIL in general and Change Management in
particular. The most common misunderstanding is the assumption that
implementing Change Management will fix issues that are related to Release
Management or Configuration Management.
Change
Management focuses on the oversight and approval aspects of the process,
ensuring that only authorized changes are being worked on
there for minimizing any kind of negative impact on the business environment
and users alike.
2.
Articulate the benefits of Change Management to each level of the organization.
Using a
top-down organizational approach is usually the most effective way to establish
Change Management. When the leaders of an organization demonstrate the
commitment and participation to implement a Change Management program, the
better the chance for success, as most of the times these group of
people will form part of the approval hierarchy the most important part of a
change management process.
Getting
buy-in at all levels is critical to the success of the program. The first step
to achieving a successful buy-in is identifying all stakeholder groups that are
affected by such an implementation.
3. Define
what a Change is.
The most
important concept to convey is that everything in the IT world can have
a change element to it.
All
Installs, Moves, Adds and Changes (IMAC’s) to the infrastructure, and any
software changes should fall under the control of Change Management. Even the
most seemingly innocuous changes can cause major disruptions if no one knows
about them.
4.
Establish clear roles and responsibilities for the Change Advisory Board (CAB),
Change Manager, and Change Authority.
Creating
an Executive Committee for the CAB is a good way to keep the executives engaged
in the process without subjecting them to the low level details that change
management sometimes involves. Having executive sponsorship increases your
leverage when encountering parties resistant to changing the status quo.
An
effective and successful Change Manager is one who proactively ensures that the
right resources, both technical and business, attend the CAB and present
viable, justifiable changes. The Change Manager can be the final arbiter in
resolving disputes over classifications and prioritizations. (Some
organizations use the Executive Committee for issue resolution).
Ensure
that the Change Authorities who are representing changes to the CAB are
well-informed and can speak to their items when challenged. Their role is to
present the business case, the impact analysis, the resource plan and execution
plan for each change.
The CAB is
not just an IT operation. A successful CAB will have a wide rotating mix of
participants from the IT, Operations and Business groups. Embrace the
flexibility that the CAB offers by limiting the standing participants and
ensuring only those resources that can add value to the discussions are invited
to the meetings.
The
CAB should also exist out of people with knowledge of the business and
technical environment so that the right decisions are made at the right time
and that all aspects are covered and understood.
It
will also be a good idea to have two separate CABs: One CAB where all long term
changes can be discussed and approved and a Emergency CAB which will consist
out of a group of stakeholders that will be able to discuss and decided on any
emergency changes required to be implemented within the business.
5. Create standardized processes and timeframes to support Change
Management.
Defining processes and timeframes up front around Major, Minor and
Emergency changes will assist in managing client expectations as to when, and
how, changes will be delivered.
Getting
the senior members of the Change Advisory Board (CAB) to sign off on the
criteria is essential.
Define
the boundaries around priorities and hold to them. By having standard change
processes understood, there will be fewer circumventions of the system.
Setting
a maintenance slot aside during which certain changes can occur will also
diminish the impact on the business environment, it is suggested that this slot
is assigned during a timeframe that will have the least impact on the business
environment.
If your
Change Management scope is significant, and incorporates IMAC’s as suggested
above, there needs to be a means of expediting the process to overcome the
bureaucracy that may prevail. Designing and implementing a standard change
model for those changes where the risk level is already well understood, allows
for such expediency.
6.
Establish and Stabilize the Change Management Process before introducing tools.
In
theory, it seems logical to buy a tool that can guide your change management
implementation and utilize it as a key component of your change program. In
practice, this approach is rarely effective. Introducing new processes, making
them more efficient and finalizing them will lay the groundwork for defining
the requirements for a tool selection. You can then better evaluate a tool fit
for your purposes instead of getting lost in the various options that most
tools present.
The
tool should also allow the management of other ITIL functionalities as at some
point the change management process will be linked to other process such as
incident, problem and configuration management.
7. Ensure back-out plans are documented and realistic.
Although no one ever intentionally introduces defects into the production
environment, it is a fact of life that problems will sometimes arise as a
result of new submissions. To combat these instances, there must be a robust
contingency plan in place to minimize the amount and length of production
outages. Ensuring that the Release Management team comes prepared to the CAB
with both their implementation plan and back-out strategy is an essential
check-point for the Change Manager.
8. Accentuate the positive by building on successes and
leveraging lessons learned. Discussing lessons learned,
whether good or bad, is important for everyone involved to better prepare for
the next instance.
While
it is important to correct bad behaviors after a release, it is just as
important to highlight what went well. Showcase success stories and integrate
lessons learned into plans for further roll-outs.
9. Use the Change Management Initiative to promote other
ITIL processes. Many organizations are only familiar with
the Change Management component of ITIL.
· Use
the success story from implementing Change Management to promote the benefits
of the other processes and how it will improve the overall performance of IT.
Change Management cannot be truly effective in isolation.
· When
Release and Configuration Management processes are absent, consider combining
all three into a centralized function. The three processes have many close
links to each other and together can stabilize an organization’s production
environment.
In
summary, implementing Change Management is and should be viewed as a major
strategic undertaking. It is much more than a simple process roll-out. As a
starting point, organizations need to know where they stand in terms of ITIL
maturity, where gaps exist, and where they want to be.
Any
ITIL implementation is a major change program that warrants a roadmap, a
realistic project plan and associated communications to achieve the desired
outcomes. It also requires training of the support organization as well as the
users receiving the service on new processes and procedures. Piloting the new
processes or performing dry runs will furthermore ensure smooth transition and
higher effectiveness.
Using
items such as these Tips to aid understanding throughout the support
organization is a good starting point for design and deployment of an
ITIL-based Change Management Process. In the end, implementing change
management is a key step in establishing the stability you need to make your
other ITIL processes and your organization more successful.
It
is also necessary to understand that Change management as a standalone process
is great to have but at some point in the project you will have to look at
implementing other ITIL process as well. Configuration management is another
process that should be managed in conjunction with the Change management
process as the one receives its critical information from the other. The change
process will receive the impact-to-business information from the configuration
process and change will give information to the configuration process with
regards to changes made to a configuration item that is stored within the CMDB
(Configuration Management Database).
In
essence having a successful and detailed change management process will give
overall confidence in the service being provided by the IT company or
department.
Content: http://www.itsmwatch.com/itil/article.php/11700_3714881_2