Change management service

Mention ‘change management’ to many IT people and their thinking is often naturally constrained within the narrow confines of traditional IT. They usually think you mean either configuration management (i.e. the control of changes to system files and parameters) or project change management (i.e. the control of changes to project plans, requirements specifications, lists of project deliverables etc.).

Whilst these are undoubtedly important concerns, we approach change management as a much broader field of concern. We consider the management of changes to the organization as a whole and the impacts on its people caused by changes to the technology.

Some organizational changes are prerequisites to adopting a new system, and further changes are a consequence of a successful implementation. Even within IT itself, our view of change management takes account of changes to IT operations processes and relationships with IT user departments, aspects that are sometimes neglected by conventional ‘IT projects’.

Significant change can be both a threat and an opportunity. The model underpinning our approach to managing change, shown diagrammatically below, is based on the Elisabeth Kubler-Ross’ pioneering research on the grieving process:

Our consideration of organizational and IT changes leads us to look out for, and work with, change agents within the business - forward-thinking people who will actively promote the changes - as well as those who will inevitably resist change. At this level, change management involves tackling company politics and dealing with the human actors as well as the technology. Taken to the extreme, major investments in new IT systems can enable entirely new business strategies and can even change entire markets - the revolutions in energy, equities and commodities trading are classic examples.

Thinking of changes in the broad leads to a somewhat unconventional approach to the management of IT system, configuration and project changes. These are still extremely important elements, of course, but have to fit in with the organization’s overall business objectives. We can help you reinforce the links between corporate management, IT management, project management and IT systems management, and regain control of all sorts of changes.

Call IsecT for help with techniques for evaluating and actively managing organizational and IT changes.