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WE DON’T NEED NO CHANGE MANAGEMENT
Arup R. Raha
Infosys Technologies Ltd.
Bangalore, India
Abstract
Pink Floyd sang "We don't need no education" many years ago - it had created
quite an uproar. Todayin another uproar, many customers are singing "We don't need no
Change Management". There is no grammatical error though! What they really mean is
"We don't need 'No Change Management' ".Modern non-practical theories on Change
Management, certification-driven Quality Processes and a maze of Change Management
related guidelines, templates, forms and checklists have made Project Managers often fall
into the trap of Change Denial and customers perceive it as Change Aversion. This was
not the intent of "Change Management". Good project management is not about
identifying a "Change", analyzing the impact on cost and schedule and then refusing it!
Good project management is about the ability to foresee possible changes faster than
others; it is about using the skills required for controlling the impact and maximizing the
benefits ofa change and above all having the willingness to change. Getting everything
right the first time is the best thing one can expect but the next best thing todois to change
at the right time. The very reason we have work on our hands is because our customers
want to make a change and it is a pity that very often project managers tend to use the
concept of "Change Management" to resist change.
This paper will take a fresh view at the concepts of Change Management and
suggest ways of changingthe mindset of Project Management towardsChange!
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Introduction
Things change. People change, climate changes, technology changes, fashion
changes, regimes change, champions change, leadership changes. Everything changes
with time. On a more philosophical note, even times are changing! Do we really need to
manage change, something that is so common in our work and lives? A situation without
any change probably does not need any management. Knowingly or unknowingly we are
always trying to manage change, trying to control change – this is Change Management.
Organizations and business enterprises are also constantly subjected to change
and there is no doubt that changes in the context of business can often become very
complex. Today, Change Management is a well-known, well-researched and well-read
subject. Most organizations have well-documented Change Management processes.
They believe they know exactly how to deal with every change. This is more evident in the
Information Technology industry where one of the first things a Project Manager does
while starting a project (besides reading a lot of material on this subject) is documenting an
exhaustive Change Management process. This process is usually derived from the overall
Quality Management policies and practices of the organization that have been perfected
over years by executing hundreds of software development projects, which is in line with
the best-practices of the industry, and has probably also been certified by some
recognized international body.
Then where is the problem? Ask a Project Manager about how good is his/her
Change Management. Nine out of ten times you will get the response that the impact of all
the changes is under control. That exactly is the problem. There is too much focus on the
impact of the changes rather than the changes.
Ask a customer instead about how they find the vendor’s Change Management
practice. Nine out of ten times you will get the response that they would be happier without
it! They believe that these practices have made them lose the suppleness of bringing in
market-driven needs as and when they want, to a good extent and have also introduced
delays in that process. This aspect often gets misinterpreted as lack of customer’s
endorsement for the organization’s Change Management policies (and also the wrong
belief that the customer is not as “process-oriented” as we want them to be). Whereas, in
reality the customer needs and believes in Change Management processes as much as
the vendor wants it. What customer’s don’t want is the frequent misunderstanding and
misuse of the Change Management practices that often end up defeating their main
objective i.e. to enable them to bring about business changes with speed.
Customers want the Project Managers to break away from the “traditional” or
“usual” ways of managing change and come up with something that is better aligned with
the needs of today’s business. They want something that can help them become - more
competitive, better prepared to meet the challenges of globalization and quicker in
responding to the market.
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What is going “wrong”?
Not many things are wrong with the Change Management processes and tools in
use today. If your Change Management is not giving the intended results, probably there is
something wrong with the way it is getting implemented. The reason it is not getting
implemented in the right way is that the Project Manager perceives it in the wrong manner.
Let us look at the key things that may be going “Wrong”.
Wrong #1: Focusing only on the impact of a change
Change Management is not just about managing the impact of changes.
I have seen many Project Managers doing the following activities to manage a change:
List the possible impact of the change
Quantify the degree of the impact in various areas
Identify possible measures to address the impact
Mark change as “Acceptable” or “Not Acceptable” based on some pre-defined
guidelines and thresholds
While this may be quite useful to address the impact of making a change, in a
controlled manner, it does little to manage the change itself. The usefulness of the change,
the driver of the change and the “impact of not making the change” gets completely
ignored. In addition, the concept of “Acceptance” of a change based only on a few
quantifiable parameters about its impact does not take an all-round view and hence it is
faulty. E.g. A change that has an impact (e.g. cost, schedule) which is within acceptable
limits may not be worth going for, because its usefulness is very low.
Wrong #2: Scope of Change Management limited to “Scope”
This is an often-repeated mistake, particularly in the Information Technology
industry. The view of Project Managers is limited to the changes to the project’s
Requirements/Scope. While changes to requirements are definitely important and need to
be managed closely, the fact is that these changes are just the consequences of certain
important changes elsewhere. To get the best results, it is these “master-changes”, which
caused the changes in requirements, that need to be included in the scope of Change
Management. In general, every change is the result of another change. Managing a
change just by focusing on its impact normally takes care of the new changes to be
created by the current change but one should also look at the change(s) that caused it for
managing the current change itself.
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Most Project Change Management processes today are designed to get triggered
by changes in requirements. Changes to people, cost, risks, environment etc thus get
missed out and are usually dealt with separately. As a result all other changes that follow
are also left out.
E.g. A change in requirements can lead to change in people. If change in people is
not managed within the boundaries of the same Change Management process, the
consequent changes do not get handled properly.
Wrong #3: Believing that “Change is bad”
Most Project Managers believe that the biggest problem a project can face is to
have “too many changes”. Changing too often is considered “bad”. It probably reflects on
his/her lack of ability of thinking ahead and planning in advance (or on the customer’s “lack
of clarity” on what they want). Such a mindset leads to more effort being spent towards
reduction and refusal of changes rather than control of changes.
Wrong #4: Too much of tool and process-centric Change Management
This is the big Change Management “trap”. Managers fall into the trap of using
various tools, templates and checklists designed for managing change and start looking at
the tools themselves as the objectives of Change Management. Change-control tools,
change-trackers, change-request forms, traceability-matrix, impact-analysis tools,
change-acceptance criteria and many such similar tools and guidelines form the bulk of
Change Management activities today. These excellent tools are apt for what they are
supposed to do. However, they are only tools to achieve the objectives and when the tools
themselves become the objective; the real objectives get out of reach.
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