What is change management?Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition or transformation of an organization's goals, processes or technologies. The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting change, controlling change and helping people to adapt to change. Show
To be effective, the change management strategy must take into consideration how an adjustment or replacement will impact processes, systems and employees within the organization. There must be a process for planning and testing change, communicating change, scheduling and implementing change, documenting change and evaluating its effects. Documentation is a critical component of change management -- not only to maintain an audit trail should a rollback become necessary, but also to ensure compliance with internal and external controls, including regulatory compliance. How does change management work?To understand how change management works, it helps to apply its concepts and tools to specific areas of business. Below are examples of how change management works for project management, software development and IT infrastructure. Change management for project managementChange management plays an important role in project management because each change request must be evaluated for its impact on the project. Project managers, or the senior executives in charge of change control, must examine how a change in one area of the project could affect other areas and what impact that change could have on the project as a whole. Project areas that change control experts should pay particular attention to include the following:
When an incremental change has been approved, the project manager documents the change in one of four standard change control systems to ensure all thoughts and insight have been captured with the change request. Changes that are not entered through a control system are labeled defects. When a change request is declined, this is also documented and kept as part of the project archives.
Change management for software developmentIn software development project management, change management strategies and tools help developers manage changes to code and its associated documentation and enable chief information officers (CIOs) to keep projects on track. Agile software development environments encourage changes that are made to satisfy requirements and/or adjust the user interface. Change is not addressed in the middle of an iteration, however; changes are scheduled as stories or features for future iterations. Version control software tools assist with documentation and prevent more than one person from making changes to code at the same time. Such tools have capabilities to track changes and back out changes when necessary. Change management for IT infrastructureChange management tools are also used to track changes made to an IT department's hardware infrastructure. As with other types of change management, standardized methods and procedures ensure every change made to the infrastructure is assessed, approved, documented, implemented and reviewed in a systematic manner. Changes made to hardware settings are also referred to as configuration management (CM). Technicians use CM tools to review the entire collection of related systems and verify the effects that a change in one system has on other systems. Types of organizational changeChange management can be used to manage many types of organizational change. The three most common types are the following:
Popular models for managing changeBest practice models can provide guiding principles and help managers align the scope of proposed changes with available digital and nondigital tools. Popular models include the following:
What are the benefits of change management?As laid out in other sections of this definition, taking a structured approach to change management helps organizations mitigate disruption, reduce costs, reduce time to implementation, improve leadership skills, drive innovation and improve morale. In addition, here are some ways that change management can help add structure to IT and operations:
What are the challenges of change management?Companies developing a change management program from the ground up often face daunting challenges. In addition to a thorough understanding of company culture, the change management process requires an accurate accounting of the systems, applications and employees to be affected by a change. Additional change management challenges include the following:
Importance and effects of change managementAs a conceptual business framework for people, processes and the organization, change management increases the success of critical projects and improves a company's ability to adapt quickly. Business change is constant and inevitable, and when poorly managed, it has the potential to cause organizational stress, as well as unnecessary and costly rework. By standardizing the consistency and efficiency of assigned work, change management assures that the people side of an organization is not overlooked. As changes to work occur, change management helps employees understand their new roles and build a more process-driven culture. Change management also encourages future company growth by enabling it to remain dynamic in the marketplace.
Principles of change managementThree principles of change management build on the three stages of change management introduced by Kurt Lewin in his seminal book, Principles of Topological Psychology:
Popular change management toolsDigital and nondigital change management tools can help change management officers research, analyze, organize and implement changes. In a small company, the tools may simply consist of spreadsheets, Gantt charts and flowcharts. Larger organizations typically use software suites to maintain change logs digitally and provide stakeholders with an integrated, holistic view of change and its effects. Popular change management software applications include the following:
Change management certificationsChange management practitioners can earn certifications that recognize their ability to manage projects, manage people and guide an organization through a period of transition or transformation. Popular certifications for change management are issued by the following organizations:
Overcoming resistance to changeIn general, no one likes to change, even it is for the better in some way. Here are some best practices to help mitigate this resistance to change:
This was last updated in May 2022 Continue Reading About change management
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Which of the following describes an officially defined set of relationships?The formal organization is an officially defined set of relationships, responsibilities, and connections that exist across an organization.
Which of the following refers to the arrangement of positions in an organization and their formal relationships to one another?Departmentalization refers to the formal structure of the organization, composed of various departments and managerial positions and their relationships with each other.
What depicts the formal organizational relationship areas of responsibility and accountability and channel of communication?an organization chart depicts formal relationships, channels of communication, and authority through line-and-staff positions, scalar James, and span of control.
What is the type of change called when leaders assume that employees will change if they can be inspired to aim for greater degrees of excellence in their work?This set of perceptions often leads to abundance-based change, in which leaders assume that employees will change if they can be inspired to aim for greater degrees of excellence in their work.
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