The Challenge Of Managing Change Management

Change is happening at an increased level of complexity, with more demanding customers, greater technological advances, worldwide competition and increasing levels of governmental and industry regulations. Organisations that learn to manage change are the ones who stand to reap vast benefits, in ensuring minimal disruption to their daily operations and the visibility and productivity gained with the enforcement of governance throughout the enterprise.

The goal of change management process is in supporting the process of change, standardising methods, processes and procedures to efficiently, consistently and successfully control change across the enterprise. This can be done, by integrating the development, implementation, and adoption of change policies and processes. The other important goal is the ability to trace change.

Regulatory mandates, changing business needs and the demands for consistently high levels of IT services drive the need for a cohesive approach to software change management. Explains Alagu Balaraman, vice president, Process and Architect, Britannia Industries Ltd, “Let us assume that change management refers to getting people to understand, accept and participate in a new way of doing something. This is crucial to businesses, especially as the last decade of accelerating change has hit our environment, with very little change in the way we manage our businesses.”

Important Role Of Audit

In addition to meeting compliance standards of auditability and accountability, companies adopt change management programmes to benefit from improved efficiencies, effectiveness and cost savings. Change management audit, on the other hand, is an internal audit of the organisations’ change management policies, verifying compliance as well as a continuous review of its current processes for further cost savings and improvements. At the same time, it reviews the extent to which the current policies addresses the risks associated with unapproved or unauthorised ad-hoc changes and its rapid recovery from change related problems. This is an important process in identifying gaps and other areas of improvement.

Informs Keshav Prakash, country manager, India, Serena Software, “Serena’s change management solutions recognise the importance of change management audit, facilitates audit and enforces change policies and processes throughout the organisation. By deploying the right change management solutions, companies are assured that changes will happen seamlessly, efficiently and successfully every time, everywhere.” With this kind of capability of audit in the solutions, companies are now able to integrate and automate process workflows across enterprise roles, business units, technologies and geographies. They can drive adoption of a company’s change policies and best practices, such as Agile, CMMi, ITIL, and COBIT, as well as ensure compliance with regulatory mandates, such as Sarbanes-Oxley, HIPAA and Basel II. They will be able to create tighter alignment between business and IT.

Prior Things To Look Into

There are various things a CIO or the management should look into before opting for change management processes and policies. When an organisation has decided to embark on a change management program, there are four basic things to decide on. These are processes, people, governance and tools/systems. To begin with, companies and their CIOs should prepare for change by defining what their change management strategy is, then put together a change management team and develop a sponsorship model. In the next phase, you should manage change by developing change management plans with key stakeholders and thereafter take action by implementing that plan. Finally, reinforce that change by monitoring and collecting feedback; diagnose any gaps and manage resistance and implement corrective actions, if needed.

Opines Balaraman, “Changes in the IT infrastructure can affect every part of your business operation, posing various kinds of risks for the enterprise. Change must be controlled to mitigate the inherent risks to IT compliance, service quality and security posture. Having processes in place is not enough but change management policies and controls must be systematically evaluated and enforced.” Top management must also provide clear, consistent communication to set expectations in accordance with change management. They should also ensure that change policies are in place and enforced.

Indian Scenario

Indian organisations are realising that improved governance is necessary to accelerate global business growth and are beginning to embrace change management solutions. With the need and recognition for Indian companies to meet global benchmarks and quality standards, we believe that this growth is poised to gain tremendous momentum. This momentum will further help maintain India’s continued leadership as a destination for outsourced services, despite rising competitive pressures from China and other low-cost regions. Informs Prakash, “India is an important market for Serena, and it is unique in the sense that it is a cost conscious and relatively conservative market, with CIOs concentrating on short term costs more often than projecting ROIs for medium to long term periods.”