Change – Initial assessment checklist, anyone?

Cuff checklist by nasa_appel @ Flickr, Some Rights Reserved

Came up with this initial change assessment checklist for early identification of potential issues that must be taken care of.

The sparkle was a detected tendency that somehow inflicts change analysts to disregard planning and risk analysis. I found this in a customer that relies heavily on a subcontracted service provider for most of its service management activities.

As with all that has real value, it takes work and real thinking. A checklist can be helpful as a kickstarter.

People

• Does it need specific people in my organization?
• Does it need specific expertise not available in my organization?
• Is there a clear potential affected user list?
• What training for end users will be needed?
• What training for operational and administration level is required?
• Does it need multiple teams effort?

Technology

• Will it need specific resources (not people)?
• Does it include technology never used within our organization?
• Does it need additional testing, staging environments?
• Does it need specific licensing?

Process

• Is it dependent on other changes?
• What is the scope of the change? Does it affect only one component or several?
• Is it possible to fully test the change?
• Is there a work-around available should things go wrong? If so does it need specific preparation and resources?

Business

• Do we know what benefits it will bring?
• Does it have a clear business deadline?
• How critical are the affected services?
• What is the duration and scope of possible service disruption? Can the change be deployed within a scheduled maintenance window for services affected?
• Are there any special circumstances regarding this change?

I am working on testing this set (or a smaller one) on a customer.

Interested in how much meaningful analysis can really be performed early on a change life cycle and what the payoff will be.

The People factor

People from Flickr by id–iom, Some Rights Reserved

Changing people is challenging.

Efforts to put processes working depend mostly on the human factor, regardless of how well those processes are designed and adapted for the organization.

Quite recently we had to change the way we visually represent decisions in processes because we forgot people resist too many changes in one go. The customer is always right (even if he expresses it the wrong way).

Useful aspects to consider when (gasp) changing people:

1. Establish a rapport (consider checking Dan Pink’s “To Sell is Human” book), ask “where are you from?”
2. Listen hard, don’t interrupt. Rephrase key messages you got.
3. Never asssume
4. Ask them what works!
5. Do your homework: who are the stakeholders? What moves them?
6. Use great stories – we are all  story-junkies
7. Give it a name. Brand it. Check Seth Godin

Dear reader tell me: Where are you from?

(Kudos to Paul for bringing forth this topic.)