Agile Change Management: A Practical Framework for Successful Change Planning and Implementation

287 Pages·2014·7.372 MB·English

by  Melanie Franklin

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Agile Change
Management
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Agile Change
Management
A practical framework for successful
change planning and implementation
MelAnie FrAnklin
KoganPage
london philadelphia new delhi
iv
Publisher’s note
Every possible effort has been made to ensure that the information contained in this book
is accurate at the time of going to press, and the publishers and author cannot accept
responsibility for any errors or omissions, however caused. No responsibility for loss or
damage occasioned to any person acting, or refraining from action, as a result of the ma­
terial in this publication can be accepted by the editor, the publisher or the author.
First published in Great Britain and the United States in 2014 by Kogan Page Limited
Apart from any fair dealing for the purposes of research or private study, or criticism or review,
as permitted under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, this publication may only be
reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form or by any means, with the prior permission in
writing of the publishers, or in the case of reprographic reproduction in accordance with the terms
and licences issued by the CLA. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside these terms should
be sent to the publishers at the undermentioned addresses:
2nd Floor, 45 Gee Street 1518 Walnut Street, Suite 1100 4737/23 Ansari Road
London EC1V 3RS Philadelphia PA 19102 Daryaganj
United Kingdom USA New Delhi 110002
www.koganpage.com India
© Melanie Franklin, 2014
The right of Melanie Franklin to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her
in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
ISBN 978 0 7494 7098 2
E­ISBN 978 0 7494 7099 9
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Franklin, Melanie
Agile change management : a practical framework for successful change planning and
implementation / Melanie Franklin.
pages cm
ISBN 978­0­7494­7098­2 (pbk.) – ISBN 978­0­7494­7099­9 (ebk) 1. Organizational change–
Management. I. Title.
HD58.8.F7125 2014
658.4’06–dc23
2013049646
Typeset by Graphicraft Limited, Hong Kong
Print production managed by Jellyfish
Printed and bound by CPI Group (UK) Ltd, Croydon, CR0 4YY
v
Contents
Contents v
Introduction 1
01 6
Contents Concept 6
Explaining agile working 6
Evolving solution 7
Business need 7
Iterative process 8
Iterative development 9
Collaboration 9
02 11
Principles 11
Five guiding principles 11
03 18
Roadmap 18
Introduction 18
Considerations for use 19
Using the roadmap 31
Introduction 1 Iteration 1 50
Iteration 2 and subsequent iterations 64
04 77
Business need 77
Introduction 77
What is business need? 79
1 Concept 6 Assigning information to type 84
Bringing the elements of business need together 85
Aligning business need to the roadmap 93
Explaining agile working 6 Developing your business understanding 95
Understanding who to involve 102
Generating information about the change 114
Evolving solution 7 Identifying requirements and acceptance criteria 122
Defining the impact of the change 132
Conclusion 145
Business need 7 05 146
Relationship building 146
Introduction 146
Iterative process 8 Understand yourself before understanding others 147
Personal awareness 147
Personal leadership 163
Iterative development 9 Building relationships with others 174
Who to build a relationship with 177
Steps in building relationships 184
Collaboration 9 Conclusion 194
06 195
Environment 195
Introduction 195
Setting the scene 196
Environment needs to provide reassurance 201
2 Principles 11 Environment needs to provide encouragement 208
Building a sustaining environment 217
Environment needs to provide motivation 221
Five guiding principles 11 Conclusion 236
Change sponsor 237
Change leader 238
Change participant 240
Description of the change 241
Business case 244
3 Roadmap 18 Benefits description 247
Change management strategy 248
Change management plan 250
Introduction 18 Presenting information 252
Workshops 254
Maintaining business as usual 262
Part 1: Developing a roadmap 19 Creating the change 263
Governing the change 264
Considerations for use 19
Using the roadmap 31
Part 2: Applying the roadmap to your change 50
Iteration 1 50
Iteration 2 and subsequent iterations 64
4 Business need 77
Introduction 77
What is business need? 79
Assigning information to type 84
Bringing the elements of business need together 85
Aligning business need to the roadmap 93
Developing your business understanding 95
Understanding who to involve 102
Generating information about the change 114
Identifying requirements and acceptance criteria 122
vi Contents
Defining the impact of the change 132
Conclusion 145
5 Relationship building 146
Introduction 146
Understand yourself before understanding others 147
Personal awareness 147
Personal leadership 163
Building relationships with others 174
Who to build a relationship with 177
Steps in building relationships 184
Conclusion 194
6 Environment 195
Introduction 195
Setting the scene 196
Environment needs to provide reassurance 201
Environment needs to provide encouragement 208
Building a sustaining environment 217
Environment needs to provide motivation 221
Conclusion 236
Appendix 1 Change roles 237
Appendix 2 Change management documents 241
Appendix 3 Communication activities 252
Appendix 4 Change activity index 262
Appendix 5 Change capabilities index 265
Resources 269
Index 271
Online resources to accompany this book are available from
www.koganpage.com/agilechangemanagement
1
Introduction
You cannot succeed if you do not know how to change what you do
today to keep pace with changes taking place everywhere. Change
management is not a specialist role – it is core to every role in an organ­
ization. The ability to design and implement change easily and realize its
benefits quickly is at the core of survival and competitive advantage.
This book is for everyone involved in making change happen in organ­
izations. Change is anything new or different, which involves creating new
ways of working as we try to unlearn how we used to work, whilst continu­
ing to provide business as usual to everyone who relies on us – a mixture of
external clients, our suppliers and partner organizations and our colleagues.
My aim was to create a practical guide to all aspects of change, not just the
method to be used, but also to share ideas about how to support ourselves
and others through the psychological impact of change, which is consider­
able but often overlooked.
Our relationships with others and our ability to empathize, influence and
motivate them is at the heart of making change happen. If we cannot per­
suade others to do things differently then change will simply not happen. It
doesn’t matter if it is strategically important, or has been created according
to best practice methods and techniques, people will always resist change
that hasn’t engaged them emotionally.
There is a huge body of work from psychologists, consultants and HR
practitioners that explains the many theories of how the human brain works,
what motivates us, what causes us to resist change, and suggests techniques
for building rapport and emotional engagement. I have tried to synthesize
much of this material into an easy­to­read guide on creating supportive work­
ing environments and building effective relationships.
Underpinning everything that I have written is my knowledge that without
participation and involvement from everyone who is affected by the change
we are implementing, the change will never become embedded into how
people work, and will not replace the manner in which work is currently done.
2 Agile Change Management
In a career spanning more than 20 years, I have sponsored, managed and
led countless change initiatives and the one determinant between success
and failure, which is common to all of these changes, is the level of participa­
tion across all job roles and all levels of seniority both inside and outside the
affected organization.
As well as generating participation, we need to ensure that whatever type
of change we are trying to make, it adds value and is of benefit to our organ­
ization as a whole and to all those impacted by it. In recent years a lot of
material on managing and realizing benefits has been published. These
books and articles set out useful processes for identifying and measuring
benefits and give step­by­step guidance for the activities involved. However,
they all make the same assumption, which is that everyone knows what
a business benefit is. In my experience, this is not the case, and many people
involved in managing projects and defining change initiatives start by asking
their customer what they want, and then create a plan to deliver it. They do
not ask them why they want it, and they struggle to challenge those paying
for the work to explain how what they are asking for is better than what is
currently in place.
Without this debate on the business need and the business value to
be delivered by change initiatives, we cannot get under the skin of what’s
involved, and we cannot provide enough depth to the question ‘what’s in it
for me?’ by those whose participation we need.
I have learnt from experience that whilst senior management commit­
ment is an important factor in getting change initiatives off the ground, it is
not enough to guarantee success. Translating ideas into new ways of
working is best led by those closest to the changes. I haven’t made specific
reference to job titles in this book, but I have assumed you have specialist
knowledge about how to carry out a specific task or role that is expected
to be impacted by the change, so you are responsible for making the
necessary changes.
I have picked up the story from the point when the need for the change
has been defined by the senior management of your organization. The scope
and objectives of the change have been explained at a high level, but the
detailed planning of its implementation as it affects your department is your
responsibility. This is because my intention is to explain how to make change
happen, rather than to get caught up with explaining the strategic models
and processes that lead an organization to change direction.
Introduction 3
In your role you do not have authority over people and cannot ‘force’
them to participate in the change. Therefore, your ability to build productive
relationships with your colleagues and create an environment that welcomes
and supports change is going to be very important to the success of the
change.
The change you are leading is likely to have an impact on your work, that
of your immediate colleagues and possibly will also impact the department
that you work in. I have assumed that you do not have authority or responsi­
bility for implementing the change across the whole of your organization but
if the change is organization­wide then you are a part of this effort.
My aim was to create a pragmatic guide to making change a reality, so
I have concentrated on explaining how to create new ways of working,
whilst acknowledging – rather than planning – how to create cultural change.
These new ways of working will lead people to think and behave differently,
and may include the adoption of new values and beliefs about their work.
This ‘cultural’ change is a product of new ways of working and will manifest
itself only when the change has been implemented and people have formed
their own opinion of how the change affects them and how it makes them
feel about their job and the organization they work for.
As well as your role in implementing change, you are expected to
continue with your ‘business as usual’ role. You will need to split your time
so that existing performance measures are met, whilst at the same time
introducing changes to business as usual to create a new way of working
for yourself and your colleagues. Alternatively, you are a project manager
responsible for creating the deliverables that will form the new ways of
working, and helping those who will use these deliverables to incorporate
them into their day­to­day procedures and activities.
I haven’t assumed that you have any prior knowledge or formal training in
change management and although everything that I have written is derived
from well­researched theories and commonly accepted best practice, I have
put everything into my own words so this is not an academic book full of
references. If you are interested in following up on more information, I have
created a resources section (see page 269) listing the publications that I
think give the best explanation of change.
To help you find what you need as quickly as possible, I have structured
the book around four key themes. The themes are interlinked but you can
pick up the story at any point: