IT-Induced Change - 1

Managing IT-Induced Change

Lou DiGioia

MBA 731

IT-Induced Change - 2

IT Induced Change

• Why bother?

• Managing Change– Best Practices

– Common Issues

• Case Study Analysis

• Lesson learned

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IT Induced Change

“People hate change”

• Reason given for many failures in the buiness world

• True or False?

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IT Induced Change

• The truth? People love change.

• People voluntarily change major parts of their lives every day

– Clothes

– Hairstyle

– Jobs

– Cars

– Marriage partners

• Why the misperception?– People dislike forced change and/or surprise change

• Deal with these issues using change management.

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IT Induced Change

• What is change management?

a) software that automates the process of tracking and documenting changes to a code base or IT system

b) a process gleaned from books, classes or overpriced consultants to help streamline technology-related change

c) an intangible, impossible-to-teach part of individual and organizational character that embraces the inevitability of and opportunity associated with change

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IT Induced Change

• Why is change so hard?– Race to shrink time to market and time to value

– Pressure to constantly upgrade existing systems or implement new technologies» To maintain organization's leadership

» To keep up with the pack

– Technology complexity is on the rise » Mergers and acquisitions

» Increasing regulations

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IT Induced Change

• What are the business benefits of change management?

– Lower the risks associated with change

– Provide a comprehensive picture of the organization-wide impact of change

– Provide means to achieving increased internal teamwork and external end-user satisfaction

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IT Induced Change

• What are the intangible elements of successful change-management processes?

– Culture that recognizes the need to adapt

– Embrace and encourage feedback from those impacted by change rather than seeing opinions as an impediment.

– Not everyone gets what they want

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IT Induced Change

• When is change management most important?

• Four stage model of change– Chartering phase

– Project phase

– Shakedown phase

– Upward and onward

• Most important during the project and shakedown phases

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IT Induced Change

• What are some common change patterns that need to be managed?

– Hidden interdependencies

– Increasing degree of variance

– Reinventing functionality

• How do I deal with these problems?– Modularize change

– Document the scope of the introduced variation

– Facilitate reuse and knowledge sharing

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IT Induced Change

• Case study analysis – Rural Payments Agency Change Program

– Rural Payments Agency created in 2001 to improve system of payments to farmers in England

– Current system consisted of disparate payment schemes and operation centers

– Program would have modern IT systems introduced to automate and standardize methods

– Benefits include reducing staff from 3300 to 1950; regional centers from twelve to five

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IT Induced Change

• Approach– New boards created to oversee process

– Support was sought from major IT supplier

– Solution based on concept of single platform for existing and future payment schemes

– Contract was signed with Accenture in 2003

– External sources were sought to manage risk

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IT Induced Change

• Challenges– Policy reforms resulted in fundamental redesign to

meet requirements of new system

– No vision was ever created for the agency; created tensions between those who wanted customer focus and those who wanted task based operational design

– Tensions between RPA and Defra (UK Dept. of Agriculture)

– Pressures in delivering SPS:» Fixed end date

» Delays in low-level policy detail

» High level of complexity in end product

» Clear ownership of project not delineated

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IT Induced Change

• Challenges, cont.– Relationship between RPA and Accenture

» RPA expected a “black box” solution; while the contract specified a partnering approach

» RPA took time to develop clear expectation of what it wanted due to scope creep

» Lack of continuity of both process and personnel was exacerbated by complexity of project

» Took Accenture long time to put a team in place with necessary skills and experience

– Benefits management» As scope of IT system was reduced to hit deadlines,

savings from those features were not realized. Yet, those savings were already taken into account in departmental budgets

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IT Induced Change• Successes

– Disparate units were able to be combined into one central agency

– Integrated corporate infrastructure was implemented

– Effective and regular communication with personnel and consistent message from managers helped ensure process went well for employees

– Staff morale remained high due to emphasis on communication and hands-on leadership

• Failures

– System failed to deliver projected £1.5 billion in payments to its 116,000 customers in June 2006 which spread to widespread customer dissatisfaction

– Benefits of staff reduction offset by need to hire temps

– Benefits of project delayed while costs increased

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IT Induced Change

• Lessons learned– Ensure proper analysis is performed before

decisions are made

– Establish single point of responsibility

– Lines of communication need to be short, clear and open

– If end date is fixed and functionality cannot be compromised, all parties must take into account enhanced risks and make plans to mitigate potential problems

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References

• “Coping with Change.” Institute for Management Excellence. Updated May 1997. Retrieved 15 Nov 2007 http://www.itstime.com/may97.htm

• Koch, Geoff. “ABC: An Introduction to Change Management.” CIO.com. Retrieved 15 Nov 2007 http://www.cio.com/article/102902

• Kock, Ned. Systems Analysis and Design Fundamentals. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc., 2007

• “Rural Payments Agency Change Programme.” Office of Government Commerce. Retrieved 15 Nov 2007 http://www.ogc.gov.uk/documents/RuralPaymentsCaseStudy.pdf

• Witchells, Clint. “Case study: Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.” Computingbusiness.co.uk. Retrieved 15 Nov 2007 http://www.computingbusiness.co.uk/computing-business/analysis/2192649/case-study-weymouth-portland?vnu_lt=cb_art_related_articles