Use Change forums to manage Business Transformations

Blog site: https://wahab.eu/r/change

Do you remember the time when you were leading a series of projects and everything was perfect. Absolutely no problems, all activities being delivered on time, no changes, no last minute issues. I don't remember any such time. Its probably why I enjoy working in the transformation and change environment. But of course, the main problem with change, is that people are discovering new opportunities to grow their business. Which in turn, means a continual stream of new business requirements. Some of these impact existing projects. So how do we control this. Through a change forum.

So what is a change forum? It is a meeting composed of senior stakeholders - probably the Chief Operating Officer (COO) - to chair with the Portfolio/ Programme manager. Ideally, if you can, you should have a Change officer as well (but this is a nice to have). You need to discuss the mandatory attendees to this forum alongside the COO. All other attendees should be on an invitation only basis.

So what's next? We now need a common set of criteria against which to measure requests for change. I would suggest the following:

• If changes have no impact to scope, time or budget, it should be approved by the project team. This does not require escalation. But the core team should still approve the request. If approved, the timing should be for inclusion in the next phase of the project.
• If the changes are lower than the defined change criteria, (to be unanimously approved by the Change forum members), the programme manager should approve or reject. If approved, the timing should be for inclusion in the next phase of the project.
• If the changes are greater than the agreed change criteria, they need to be presented to the forum for approval (or rejection).

So what is the basic information that needs to be provided in a change request (which must always be completed by the core team member requesting the change):

• Name of Change submitter (core team member)
• Programme and Project name
• Date of initial change request
• Change category (IT, Marketing, Communications, etc)
• Change title
• Change description (explain why the change is needed and what happens if the request is declined)
• What are the number of day delays to the timeline
• What is the additional budget needed to implement the change
• What is the validated return on investment (RoI) as a consequence of this change
• By what date does the change need to be implemented

Now lets remember that there needs to be a common change template (this is helpful for business intelligence and project learnings), irrespective of the size of the change. The programme manager must decide, based on the size of the change, what minimum information needs to be provided in the template.

Most change requests will be managed at project level, by the core team (you may decide to keep RoI at this level or not). For change requests submitted to the Change forum, there needs to be a RoI value and an approved methodology to work out the RoI. This is important to ensure the various change requests can be compared on a "like for like" basis for prioritisation. The business intelligence team should provide the methodology components (I will not provide the components in this post).

Prior to the Change Forum meeting (which could be monthly or every two weeks), the programme manager needs to provide a change request submission cut off date to all project managers. This will provide time to collate all the submitted change requests and priortisation. The change requests shortlisted for the submission at the forum should be shared with the COO for review. This gives time for further information to be requested, prior to the meeting.

For the actual meeting, an Agenda should be prepared, detailing which change requests will be reviewed, at least 2 business days in advance (ideally 4 working days). Each person submitting a change request, selected for review at the forum, should make a formal presentation. It is at this meeting, that the requests will be formally approved or declined (with rationale for decision provided). Minutes should be circulated to all participants of the meeting within 24 hours of the meeting.

This is a short overview of the change management forum based on my experiences. For sure, there is more in depth learnings and practicalities. I would be happy to discuss with anyone that needs more information or insight.

Rashid

Blog site: https://wahab.eu/r/change