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Change is more and more common and necessary in the Information Technology (IT) sector. Due to numerous new developments coming from the workforce, organizations put themselves in a position of frequent transformation to meet their customer’s needs as well as their own ones.
It’s precisely because of the importance and criticality of change processes that methods guided by quality standards must be used; after all, this entire process must be carried out effectively and efficiently to reduce the impact of possible unforeseen events. Thus, the professionals in corporations opt for methodologies such as ITIL (Information Technology Infrastructure Library), which is an international standard for IT service management and meets the ISO 20000 standard.
Regarding change management methods
ITIL encompasses procedures for better user and customer satisfaction. According to ITIL, a change is the addition, modification, or removal of any task that will impact IT. Often, a change is an event that is previously authorized, analyzed, and will bring some kind of value to the organization and its customers.
The demand for change can come from an employee or a user who finds it necessary. It can be classified as
- Emergency change: which would be an impediment to production and tends to be more uncoordinated and with a high chance of failure; or
- Standard change: which has low risk, a pre-established process, and it’s documented step-by-step.
The goal of change management is to establish a pattern of procedures to manage the need for necessary transformations in an agile and efficient manner, so as to minimize risk and the impact that changes bring to an organization.
While no practice or methodology can 100% guarantee success, they can help manage risk and secure IT services against potential unnecessary errors.
How does the process of change take place?
It all starts with the analysis of the requests for change. After that, the commitment to meet certain demands must be defined, while still meeting other business needs. Then we come to the approval and scheduling phases, ensuring that those involved are aware of all the necessary actions that will put changes into practice.
It’s important to emphasize that change is something that must be planned, which includes not only implementation cycles, but also testing and correction cycles, reducing the chances of failure when a change is applied to the production environment. Documentation also plays an important role, ensuring agility for future similar demands.
Importance of the change management process
Planned and structured change helps minimize potential risks that come with it. At the same time, it brings significant benefits, such as aligning IT with organizational interests and increasing responsiveness to change, thereby improving staff performance for future innovations.
Commonly, one of the biggest challenges during change management process is the resistance of those involved. Many choose to continue to perform tasks in an inefficient way, but that they are already used to.
We emphasize that change management also plays the role of transmitting confidence to these people, since an efficient schedule involves commitment from those involved to maximize the team’s potential to adapt to the new ways of working.
Miscommunication can create a lack of trust among those involved, and uncertainty will cause difficulties in embracing change. Employees need to be aware of what is going on, and avoid feeling disconnected and not aligned with the change objectives. And this is only possible thanks to the change management process, which understands that communication must be constant, as the whole group can help with valuable ideas.
In conclusion
Without a doubt, change management is an important business strategy. Maturing this process is a long way to go, but by achieving excellence in it, the organization becomes able to promptly meet its needs, adding value to itself and remaining competitive in the market.
At Neomind, we make available to our clients the Change Management Accelerator, making organizational processes agile and productive. This accelerator is concerned with the management of a change cycle within the context of IT asset management or beyond. To do this, it generates the necessary controls for impact analysis, change planning, configuration management, and predictability. To learn more, please visit our website or contact us.
