“The only constant is change.”
This old adage applies to many facets of business—especially IT. There will always be a growing need for reliable and secure technology.
What’s important is managing these changes from conception through implementation to achieve your organization’s end goals. Your company can deploy state-of-the-art systems with ample functionality, but without strong change management backing the rollout, implementation will quickly deteriorate into more of a problem than a solution.
Change management is not only required for cross-functional, procedural changes, but also for any newly implemented software or functionality, system upgrade, or smaller system configuration. Following are the three pillars of software change management you need to know.
Most infrastructure-related changes require some form of impact analysis. Suppose IT decides to change the time at which a system is shut down for maintenance. It will be critical to identify and communicate potential impacts to downstream applications and data flow during this time. If a change brings down a critical system or application, it will hinder the end-user’s ability to carry out essential operations.
Performing impact analysis is easier if IT’s system architecture is already mapped with connections between infrastructure and applications. If your company uses an ESM platform, like ServiceNow or Jira, take advantage of available service mapping capabilities and prioritize mapping out critical services.
Evaluate the application or device impacted by the change to see what items are affected and consult the associated IT Service Delivery Manager or IT Application Owner on the change before implementation. In general, if the change could affect end users, respective business units must be made aware and provide approval.
Once the change is agreed upon and has passed through the development stage, it must then go through UAT (User Acceptance Testing) prior to deployment in the production environment. UAT allows the business to test the newly implemented software, functionality, upgrade, or configuration.
Unfortunately, UAT tends to be overlooked due to budgetary and resource constraints, but it should be regularly enforced by change management to mitigate risk of issues after go-live. In production, issues are much more difficult and costly to remediate. UAT will ensure alignment between IT’s end goals and functionality provided by system developers.
Although communication departments may not technically fall under change management, the most important pillar is communication. Communication plans should be made prior to development and provide details on communications to be sent out, ownership, and timing.
Consider the following ways of providing thorough and effective internal and external communication when planning for a change:
Internal
Early Involvement: Prepping internal resources for the change in the early stages of development is key to user acceptance. Even if the messaging is vague to leave room for changes in development, end goals and primary benefits should be communicated throughout IT and the rest of the enterprise to rally support around the change and upcoming trainings.
Customized Training: Training internal resources is essential, particularly if the newly implemented functionality results in a process change. Adjust your training and method of delivery based on the scope of the change. Consider creating required training modules for new hires.
Support and Accessibility: Evaluate how open the line of communication is between change makers and the change recipients. If recipients have questions or feedback, make sure they know who to contact and how. Large organizations may leverage help desks or other support software. We recommend EVAN360 for the most immediate, personalized support.
External (end-user)
Concise Messaging: With end-user messaging, err on the side of conciseness. Remember to “feed the goldfish,” or in other words, operate as if your end-user has the attention span of a goldfish. Feed short and succinct messages on a regular basis. This allows for better retention.
Feedback Channels: Capturing end-user feedback helps in refining recent changes in processes and system configurations. It also helps determine the effectiveness of change management (i.e., did customers have issues accessing promised functionality or understanding why the change was made?).
At Trenegy, we help organizations develop efficient change management programs to ensure IT stays predictable, reliable, secure, and cost-effective. Email us at info@trenegy.com to hear more.
