What is change management?

The series of tasks that are done to manage the changes that are to be implemented in a project module or a process in an organization is called change management. You should know that it is not a process improvement method or a standalone process. It is about managing the people who are in the process and about managing the resistance from those people for the change to be implemented.

There are different stages in change management. The first stage is to prepare the users for the change to be made. The second stage is the actual implementation of the changes in the process or project. The third stage is reinforcing the changes and getting feedback about the changes and improving the change made to get better business results.

 

During the first stage of the change management, the actual change that is needed is documented and approved by the management. Then it is circulated among the various departments and their feedback got. This is done manually or if software for change management is in place it would make this process easier.

 

The members of the departments getting affected by the change might approve the change or reject it or suggest improvements in the change to be made. Resistance to the change is expected mostly because people are not aware of the impact. A strategy to implement the changes is developed and that strategy is approved by the management. It is seen that the strategy does not affect the ongoing business process. A detailed planning is done.

 

In the next stage the strategy that was developed in the earlier stage is implemented. The users are allowed to use the change. Before the change is implemented, it is double checked by the quality audit team. After approval of the quality audit team it is made live.

 

In the final stage, feedback of the users on the change is got. The data that is going through this process is tracked for conformance to the business process in place. Based on these there might be any corrections to the changes made to make the process perfect.