Project success through Change Management

In these times of digital change, it takes more than traditional project management to ensure the success of IT projects. Rather, the employees concerned play the decisive role. Much more attention has to be paid here. This is exactly where the concept of Change Management comes in—guaranteeing sustainably successful change processes.

Digitalization is a continuous improvement process which goes alongside ongoing restructuring and constant change. From the perspective of many employees, this means that their workplace is developing dynamically and they have to deal with new tasks and working methods much more frequently. It is therefore crucial for managers to understand all about internal processes and their potential for improvement. Only then can strategies and behavior patterns be effectively adapted and ideas implemented.

Project management in a classic IT project setting deals with aspects such as planning, control, risk management or methodology. What is often overlooked, however, is the question of how to sufficiently involve professional and managerial staff. Preparing a team for change and ensuring that it is accepted and integrated into the corporate culture is clearly a responsibility that falls on the project leadership’s shoulders.

The importance of employees in successfully implementing an IT project was recently made clear by the Standish Group management consultancy in its CHAOS Report. In several long-term studies, the consultants demonstrated that classical project management strategies address only about one third of the project factors that are key to success. The remaining 66 percent concern the human factor—in other words, the employees. It follows that unless the people affected are involved, change processes can only be partially implemented.
Professional Change Management is required to guarantee sustainable success. After all, employees are anxious to know exactly:

• what’s in store for them
• what their (new) tasks will be
• the objectives to be achieved, and
• what steps are needed to get there.

However, human beings are creatures of habit and are generally skeptical about change. Managers therefore need to expect that there will be resistance, and this resistance can cause change projects to fail. Employees go through different phases when reacting to changes—for example, to the introduction of new business software: At the beginning of every change process, there is an announcement, i.e. information about the changes that are planned. This is followed by the go-live. In this example, this represents the actual introduction of the new software.

In projects that do not follow a Change Management strategy, the first warning signal often only comes when its productive use is barely possible at all, because many employees have simply not prepared themselves for the change. On the other hand, where there is an active Change Management strategy, employees are informed much earlier on and are also engaged right from the start. Follow-up support also ensures the project’s success.

Change Management involves all employees who will be actually affected in the change process. It is therefore no more than just a logical extension of classic project management. A first step in the right direction is to recognize that the chances of success are boosted with professional Change Management. In any case, it is advisable to bring on board experts who will prepare the company for the forthcoming changes and be with you through the entire process—from kick-off to go-live.