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.)

Your Challenge

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

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.”

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

The Ultimate Software Group Inc

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Beckman Coulter, Inc.

Workshop

9/10

N/A

Methodology and execution of the workshop was very well delivered by Jimmy Tom and Benedict Chang. Flexibility to incorporate Cepheid requirements was very critical to the success of this workshop. This was very well managed by Jimmy. Great job by Jimmy and Ben with this workshop and helping us achieve our objective!

Lee County Clerk of Courts

Workshop

8/10

$46,328

Best - the workshop has helped drive our culture of change in a better and more productive way. The documentation was a huge time-saver to implement this new structure. Worst - technical terminology used on some slides and in the presentation. Overall, it was a great experience! Thank you Jimmy, Ben, and Joe - we greatly appreciate your help!

Oregon State Treasury

Guided Implementation

9/10

$66,183

105

It helped clear up internal confusion and get everyone on the same page. I also appreciate the documents so that we don't start from scratch.

Aurora Parts & Accessories, LLC

Guided Implementation

9/10

$13,236

Denton Independent School District

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Michel has provided great advice. Our lack of maturity hinders the process and we appreciate Michel's patience.

Barry-Wehmiller

Workshop

10/10

N/A

Pennsylvania Turnpike Commission

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Excellent experience. It was evident from the start that Jimmy has a wealth of real-world experience with Change Management and has done a remarkable job of gathering an understanding of our environment and tailoring his advice accordingly. I am looking forward to his assistance in both Change Management and Incident Management process improvement.

Kenan Advantage Group

Guided Implementation

9/10

$13,236

Delta Dental of Wisconsin

Workshop

9/10

$66,183

Sumit's listening and responding to specific issues that applied directly to our business was great. He was able to take our information and develop real-world results that can help us immediately. He shared his wealth of knowledge not only on Change Management but also Disaster Recovery and Support Desk Management. The Info-Tech research that was shared will help us save time and money. The worst part was the end of the workshop seeing Sumit leave before we apply Change Management organization wide..

Limestone District School Board

Workshop

10/10

$200K

115

Best: Expert facilitation, openness to feedback and flexibility throughout the workshop; presenters were sufficiently knowledgeable to answer all of our questions, deliverables were also highly effective and aligned to our needs. Worst: nothing comes to mind

The Canadian Food Inspection Agency

Workshop

5/10

$17,500

The workshop was great. It will eventually save the Agency time and effort and be consistency on RFC processes. I cannot estimate the cost and time-saving at this time as we are just starting to work on the implementation process and until we run the new process and fine tune, it almost impossible for me to tell.

Toronto Community Housing Corporation

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

Emma is very helpful and knowledgeable

Beacon Roofing Supply, Inc

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

one on one conversations

Englobe

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

Virginia Department of Social Services

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Mr. Herbert is very knowledgeable and experienced coach. He did explained and answered my questions well. Overall it was good experience.

Arrow Energy

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Auris Health, Inc.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$6,618

QuikTrip

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,647

DAI Global, LLC

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

The best part is having someone on the other side who understands the challenges and can stir you in the right direction or provide advice from experience. Thank you!

Commonwealth of VA, State Corporation Commission

Guided Implementation

10/10

$13,236

Shelby County Government

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

The experience helped us lay out a plan for moving forward with Change Management that would have taken much longer to develop on our own. We benefited from having someone present relevant material and facilitate the discussion and record the decisions. It also provided an opportunity to get the right people in a room for a week.

The Segal Group Inc

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,647

Best - Michele is wonderful! He is extremely knowledgeable and provides excellent examples! He has been really helpful. The tools on the web site are really helpful.

Aecon Construction Group Inc.

Workshop

8/10

N/A

Worst part was trying to get proper attendance from all required internal groups for 4 days straight - it meant a lot of coming & going and the discussion suffered a bit as a result. Best part were the recommendations on how we can improve our change mgmt. maturity with a few reforms.

Dakota County Government Center

Guided Implementation

9/10

$3,970

City of Fayetteville

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

His experience and knowledge

Renown Health

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Great discussion around the topic and the insights shared from previous implementations. Worst part is making the time to invest in the initiative, getting all the players involved and motivated.

MTA Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

We had a useful phone call on the topic, the analyst provided relevant insights and benchmarks, and also provided reference materials to follow-up the call.

MTA Metropolitan Transportation Authority

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

The call was to seek input on organizational change management issues. Instead we discussed change management in general and I was able to get advice from Sumit on ServiceNow communications.

Office Of The Comptroller Of The Currency

Guided Implementation

10/10

$33,091

Sandi and Ron were extremely thorough in providing us advise and feedback when we were looking to redesign our change and release management process. We implemented the Risk based model based on the artifacts they provided and tailored it based on the guidance they gave us. We valued their feedback during the entire process. They are well versed in real life implementations and steps needed to achieve the best results.