Change Management - 6 Steps to Success

Change management is not a process that is mastered easily. We have found these six items the most important steps on the road to successful change management.
By Dennis Sommer, PMP



1. Involve Business Users
IT employees should be physically located in the same are as the business users. The IT employee will learn as much about the business as the business users themselves.

2. Align IT and Business Users
Business users should be involved in the project from the first discussions of a new system or product. They should remain involved throughout until project closure.

3. Make Everyone Accountable
Everyone has a role in the change management process. Make sure these roles are defined, accountability is assigned, and the action items are monitored and managed.

4. Think Like a User
IT employees think like engineers, technical and structured. They need to start thinking like the business user as they work on new system designs and processes together.

5. Provide Tools and Best Practices
Minor issues and mistakes will become major problems at the end of a project. Give your organization the methods, approaches, best practices, and templates, that are proven and easy to use. These tools will lower the risk of major problems occurring and improve quality.

6. Advertise Successes
Business users willing to spend long hours and assume a lot of risk being part of a new system or product should be rewarded. Promote these employees in newsletters, industry articles, and post project parties