Optimize Change Management

Right-size your change management process.

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Contributors

Jeff Fournie, Project Lead, Enbridge Gas
Dian Zhang Cui, Senior Advisor, Network Operations and Software Services, Alberta Energy Regulator
Aderemi Ajagbe, System Architect, Visa
Peter Chang, Infrastructure Manager, Alberta Energy Regulator (ret.)

Infrastructure managers and change managers need to re-evaluate their change management process due to slow change turnaround time, too many unauthorized changes, too many incidents and outages because of poorly managed changes, or difficulty evaluating and prioritizing changes.
IT system owners often resist change management because they see it as slow and bureaucratic.
Infrastructure changes are often seen as different from application changes, and two (or more) processes may exist.

Our Advice

Critical Insight

ITIL provides a usable framework for change management, but full process rigor is not appropriate for every change request.
You need to design a process that is flexible enough to meet the demand for change, and strict enough to protect the live environment from change-related incidents.
A mature change management process will minimize review and approval activity. Counterintuitively, with experience in implementing changes, risk levels decline to a point where most changes are “preapproved.”

Impact and Result

Create a unified change management process that reduces risk and is balanced in its approach toward deploying changes while also maintaining throughput of innovation and enhancements.
Categorize changes based on an industry-standard risk model with objective measures of impact and likelihood.
Establish and empower a change manager and change advisory board with the authority to manage, approve, and prioritize changes.
Integrate a configuration management database with the change management process to identify dependencies.

Start here – read the Executive Brief

Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should optimize change management, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.

Optimize Change Management – Executive Brief

1. Form strategy

Assess the maturity of existing change management processes and define the scope of change management for your organization.

2. Build core processes

Build your change management team and standardized process workflows for each type of change.

3. Build support processes

Book-end your change management process by standardizing the change intake and change implementation.

4. Build implementation plan

Form an implementation plan for the project, including a communication plan, roadmap, and metrics evaluation.

Guided Implementations

This guided implementation is an eleven call advisory process.

Guided Implementation #1 - Strategize

Call #1 - Introduce change concepts

Call #2 - Assess maturity

Call #3 - Review roles & responsibilities

Guided Implementation #2 - Build intake process

Call #1 - Define changes

Call #2 - Build risk assessment scheme

Call #3 - Define change intake process

Guided Implementation #3 - Build core processes

Call #1 - Review core change processes

Call #2 - Review emergency change processes

Call #3 - Create post-implementation review checklist

Guided Implementation #4 - Plan implementation

Call #1 - Review metrics

Call #2 - Create roadmap

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Change Management

Let your battle with change-related incidents begin!
This course makes up part of the Infrastructure & Operations Certificate.

Course information:

Title: Change Management
Number of Course Modules: 5
Estimated Time to Complete: 2-2.5 hours
Featured Analysts:
Benedict Chang, Research Specialist, Infrastructure
Allison Kinnaird, Research Director, Infrastructure
Now Playing: Academy: Change Management | Executive Brief

Book Your Workshop

Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.

Module 1: Assess Maturity and Determine Gaps

The Purpose

Discuss existing challenges and maturity of change management processes.

Key Benefits Achieved

Understand starting point for change management and define the scope of change management.

Activities

Outputs

1.1

Outline strengths and challenges.

1.2

Conduct maturity assessment.

Change Management Maturity Assessment

1.3

Build categorization scheme.

1.4

Build risk assessment matrix.

Change Management Risk Assessment Tool

Module 2: Build Core Processes

The Purpose

Define roles and responsibilities for the change management team.
Develop standardized change management processes for approved changes, including process workflows.

Key Benefits Achieved

Built the team to support new change management process.
Formalized and right-sized change management processes for each change category to ensure all changes follow the correct process and core activities to ensure change success are completed.

Activities

Outputs

2.1

Determine change team roles and responsibilities.

RACI chart

2.2

Define change manager role.

Change Manager Job Description

2.3

Outline CAB protocol.

Change Advisory Board Charter

2.4

Build normal, emergency, and pre-approved change processes.

Change Workflow Library

Module 3: Build Support Processes

The Purpose

Create a new change intake process including a new request for change (RFC) form.
Develop post-implementation review activities to be completed for every IT change.

Key Benefits Achieved

Book-end your change management process by standardizing the change intake and change implementation.

Activities

Outputs

3.1

Build RFC template.

RFC Form Template

3.2

Create change intake process.

Change Intake Process

3.3

Determine post-implementation review activities.

Post-implementation review process

Module 4: Build Implementation Plan

The Purpose

Develop a plan and project roadmap for reaching target change management program maturity.
Develop a communications plan to ensure successful adoption of the new program.

Key Benefits Achieved

Build a plan for tracking and managing changes and change metrics.
Create a plan for targeted communications to key stakeholders, and build a project roadmap to manage the implementation of all identified tasks.

Activities

Outputs

4.1

Identify metrics and reports.

Change Management Metrics Tool

4.2

Build change calendar.

4.3

Create communication plan.

Communication Plan and Executive Presentation

4.4

Build implementation roadmap.

Change Management Roadmap

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

Gainesville Regional Utilities

Workshop

10/10

$31,405

115

Great facilitation and a huge help with navigating us through some challenging conversations.

Oregon Youth Authority

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,562

Ben was thorough in reviewing our current state based on our previous workshop. He was able to identify a few key areas we could adjust to being more efficient in our processes.

Municipality of Chatham-Kent

Workshop

9/10

N/A

The ability to customize the tools and processes to work for our organization. Ben was very knowledgeable and a good moderator of the discussion.

Derivco

Guided Implementation

9/10

$12,562

Best, great insights in a number of domains around Change Management, made us consider items we had not directly thought about. It was all positive. Nothing to suggest to improve it.

SF Fire Credit Union

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,261

The MathWorks, Inc.

Workshop

8/10

N/A

Here is the participants feedback - Having the structured workshop with exercise's to complete was very helpful. Although the the exercise's could have been do completed in a shorter time. This could have been also due to the fact that workshop was vi...

Monroe #1 BOCES

Workshop

10/10

$63,880

100

Actually I wasn't cray about virtual learning in the past but it went with out a hitch and was perfect. Ben was fantastic and had the right pace and was very knowledgeable. The second great workshop we have done with Info-tech. Thanks!

Town Of Marana

Guided Implementation

10/10

$20,099

120

Frank is the best! With only a few calls, we went from no defined process to one that is already reaping the benefits with no pushback from staff. We were constantly stepping on our own toes due to a lack of change management, and now we have a right-s...

Dentons Canada LLP

Workshop

10/10

N/A

Due to our large global footprint, the most difficult part was finding a time that all can participate. Recording the sessions was key to distributing the info wider. The best part of the experience was working with a subject matter expert who truly knew the subject and was able to guide us in the right direction any time we could not make a decision or did not know what to do. I was hesitant about the value of this workshop prior to, but can honestly say now that I wish we would have done it much sooner. Excellent Workshop and even better presenter. 5 Stars.

Hensel Phelps

Guided Implementation

10/10

$10,049

No worst part of the experience. Best parts were advise on blind spots and affirmation of being on the correct path.

DynalifeDX

Workshop

10/10

N/A

the best part was the fact that the solutions developed in the workshop are specific to us. the worst part was the price. $20,000 is a lot. We would use it more if it was less expensive.

Alabama Department of Environmental Management

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

This has been an excellent experience, as always. Frank was very helpful and knowledgeable, and his guidance and insight, along with the templates and tools provided, made this task much easier. We have only been really using the new process for a coupl...

The University of Texas at San Antonio

Guided Implementation

8/10

$62,810

IT Consultant

Guided Implementation

10/10

$25,000

The best part of my partnership with Info-Tech is availability and collaboration. The research is invaluable and beneficial to my professional growth.

State of Hawaii

Workshop

10/10

$63,667

N/A

The worst part was my inability to commit to the attend all hours of the sessions. I hope to be able to review the session recordings we made at a later date. The best parts were the information presented and the responses from the attendees. I think that despite the challenge of conducting the workshop remotely and via Microsoft Teams, it went very well and was well received by attendees.

Autolus Limited

Guided Implementation

10/10

$59,669

Trinidad and Tobago Unit Trust Corporation

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

BEST ONLY!!! No worst parts experienced! It was a good session with valuable options presented to deal with a few challenges I have been trying to resolve in my mind for a while. The following have provided workable options for me to move forward with...

United Bank

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,562

Frank did a great job of understanding our goal. Instead of proposing across the board changes, he looked at ways to alter our processes slightly to increase efficiency and ultimately meet our challenges.

Amicus Therapeutics

Workshop

10/10

N/A

While it is difficult to measure, the workshop brought everyone together on the process, defined improvements and provided a path forward. Sumit is so experienced that the virtual session worked really well.

Jet Support Services, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Benedict is very knowledgeable on the subject and able to adapt to our needs.

Summit Healthcare

Guided Implementation

10/10

$38,226

ISG Central Services Ltd.

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

I needed advice and basically a steer as to whether my own thought process was the right thing. I found the process smooth, seamless and so totally helpful!

Federated Co-operatives Limited

Guided Implementation

9/10

$25,000

Ben was very knowledgeable and helped point out areas of improvement. It was a very helpful experience.

Oregon Youth Authority

Workshop

10/10

$10,049

Sumit Chowdhury and Benedict Chang did an excellent job in presenting and facilitating our Change Management Workshop. We were able to discuss industry standards and how our environment works with change management in comparison with how other organizat...

Office of the Attorney General

Workshop

10/10

$2,546

Best parts The interactive sticky note brainstorming session. The explanation of Change Management and why it is important. This revealed to IT and others the complexity along with its value The way Jimmy and Ben managed the room, expectations, and...

AAA Club Alliance, Inc

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

Jimmy Tom was very understanding of our Challenges around change and provided guidance on how to incorporate Best Practices to our Change process. The documentation he provided was very valuable to help us develop our change path forward.

The Ultimate Software Group Inc

Guided Implementation

10/10

$8,913

Town Of Whitby

Workshop

10/10

$5,000

Excellent facilitators. Really fantastic and though provoking discussions. Really impressed with the facilitators knowledge and ability to clarify thoughts.

Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Psac

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A