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Tuesday, 04 January 2011 10:56

Champion of Change - The Business Analyst

Written by  Steve Blash
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SteveBlash_Article_Jan4_2Six months after implementation of a new software application, complaints were heard, such as "The software doesn't work" or "It's too cumbersome." After several weeks of post-implementation analysis I determined that the problem was not with the system but rather the resistance by the users to the changes required by the new system. This resistance had become so strong that a replacement of the new application was already being considered.

Upon completion of a project, the organization will have to cope with the inevitable changes that will affect the business. This is a classic example of where the business analyst has to be a "Champion of Change" and mitigate the impact of new systems on workers at all levels in the organization. Project success doesn't just mean delivering on time and on budget -- but includes genuine acceptance by the people in the organization who will benefit or, in some cases, be impacted negatively by the new implementation. This aspect of the project is often lightly touched upon or brushed aside as the BA views these changes as merely part of project communications ("Just tell the employees what needs to be done in the future"), or training ("Just send them to a training session"). In reality, acceptance of change can either make or break a project effort and needs to be addressed throughout the project.

The implementation of the application will always result in some change to the organization's structure, processes, systems and/or jobs. Whenever change of any type happens within the organization it requires extensive planning and hard work to ensure the change is implemented in a manner that will be embraced by all. This change applies to all individuals, or stakeholders, who will be impacted by the results of the project. They are the ones that Mark Twain's quote would apply to best, "I'm all for progress. It is change I don't like."

The business analyst utilizes a set of tools and techniques to elicit and manage the business requirements. These are usually focused on understanding the requirements necessary for the software and technical aspects of the application and can challenge a business analyst's "hard skills." On the other hand, the "soft skills" of a business analyst need to stay focused on the stakeholders and workers impacted by the change that is inevitable. This includes providing support and empathy in addressing resistance while helping mitigate the eventual impact of the final solution to the organization.

Stages of Change

When business change is inevitable, the business analyst needs to be aware of and identify:

  • Specific organizations and jobs that will be impacted
  • Individual business persons from those organizations who will most likely accept the changes as well as those who will resist the changes
  • Potential discussions that can be facilitated to address the changes that will occur, giving individuals the opportunity to share their concerns, provide feedback and ask questions
  • Concerns that need to be addressed in order to potentially move stakeholders from a non-supportive to a supportive position

Understanding the various stages that a person goes through when presented with change will also help determine the appropriate way to proceed.

  1. Denial of change
  2. Response of anger and resistance
  3. Acceptance and adaption to the change
  4. Commitment to the new way

During this time it is critical to continually monitor the resistance, as well as the acceptance to the new environment, as various stakeholders progress through these stages at different rates.

Communication

A communication plan will need to be targeted for each of the different audiences impacted by the change to ensure that the most effective communications methods are being utilized. The BA needs to identify the right message, at the right time, the right format and the right "authorized" sender to carry the message to the organization.

These types of communications are often best conveyed by someone in the organization, other than the BA. By working with management and project sponsors, a strong and active coalition of senior "leaders" can be gathered to craft the key messages, or "sound bites" that must be communicated. Just as in political debates, often impressions are made based on a few words, and therefore these words need to be very carefully chosen.

The initial emphasis should focus to making the case of "why" the change is needed, even before the specific details of the solution are complete. This is very similar to the development of a marketing plan for a "product", without which no new product would be expected to be successful when "rolled out".

These messages need to be incorporated into the development of a training plan that will include not only the normal operational training aspects but also the "selling" of the benefits or reason behind the change. This may require not only formal training, but also potential mentoring and coaching to effectively enable the change throughout the organization.

Final Thoughts

To truly become a champion of change, the business analyst should consider the following suggestions:

  1. Seek support from management and then support them.
  2. Choose your battles wisely with the people, management or supervisors.
  3. Be patient with the rate of acceptance; some take longer to see the light.
  4. Be tolerant of mistakes; they happen.
  5. Practice good stress management; you'll need it
  6. Have a sense of humor; you have to laugh sometimes.
  7. Embrace the future and don't get "bogged down" by the past.
  8. Recognize and reward the accomplishments of those who were instrumental in enabling the change - Yes, it's time to party

Most of all, remember the purpose of a project is to provide a benefit or improvement for the organization, and with that, something must change. If there was no need for change, there would be no need for business analysts!!!

Steve Blash is an experienced IT professional consultant providing business and technology leadership, mentoring and vision. His areas of experience include business process improvement, business analysis, business intelligence, data analytics, project and IT management.

Read 13680 times Last modified on Tuesday, 27 March 2012 13:46
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Comments  

 
0 # Countman Knight 2011-01-04 03:26
Good article, but I have a bone to pick with assigning the title of "Champion" to the BA. There is no substitute for a change champion within the organization being changed. The BA can be a good change agent and bring a lot of tools and skills to bear, but having someone within the organization, preferably someone credible to the users, support the change, celebrate successes in adapting to the change, and delivering the necessary change messages is very important. That person is the Champion. Changes completely imposed from the outside meet with more resistance than necessary, and BAs are usually external to the organization being changed, therefore not well placed to be Champion. BTW your observation on stages is pretty accurate and seems to relate to the normal human grief response, also observed in addiction treatment: Deni al Anger Resign ation/Acceptanc e Moving forward In a certain sense, I guess users are habituated, i.e., addicted, to previously successful behaviours, and have to go through the grieving process when they need to abandon them.
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0 # Leslie J. 2011-01-04 08:00
I tend to agree with the previous comment in that the BA is more of a change agent than a "champion" of change. However, that was not the intent of my comment... I'm curious how you recommend change-heavy organizations handling the need for champions of change, and how the role of the BA might be different. Currently I'm working in a fast paced eCommerce environment and on a .com we are doing continual enhancements and running multiple programs concurrently. Applying some of your suggestions from the post, if all the BAs were trying to effectively champion change, or even just influence leadership as a change agent...it seems like leadership would be constantly bombarded by any number of analysts about the education on change. My gut is that someone at the portfolio level should be an overall 'change analyst' to manage what truly is a moving target. Thoughts on how you've seen or experienced this being managed well?
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0 # Charu 2011-01-04 10:26
Steve, I love your statement - Project success doesn't just mean delivering on time and on budget -- but includes genuine acceptance by the people in the organization who will benefit or, in some cases, be impacted negatively by the new implementation. This is the main line of disagreement between a BA and a Project Manager in most of the projects......o f course, can be resolved by the BA wearing the correct hats at the appropriate times! I like your article and agree with the responsibility BAs need to take in first identifying the changes, analysing / assessing the changes and their impacts, preparing the audience for the changes and setting their expectations correctly upfront........ .and more than communication, work with the audience in settling them down with the changes (rather than throw the change at them).
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0 # Jackie Hossler 2011-01-04 23:39
In response to the suggestions that the Change Champion should be someone inside te organization being changed or at the portfolio level. I recently completed a project where the program management staff acted as the change champions and trainers. This scenario works best when there is a solid partnership with the BA(s) and project management team, with agreement on the content and timing of communications. The priority must be to ensure that the message being communicated, the features promised, and the how to training are consistent with the system funcationality and design being developed. Ideally, the timelines communicated are aligned with the project plan timelines for deliverables such as prototypes, training, and implementation phases. Challe nges with using a change champion from inside the organization, such as end-users, supervisors,and program managers, are that the BA is not directly exposed to the end-user feedback regarding impact to business processes, specific functional challenges, or needs not surfaced during requirements elicitation. There is also a risk that the party responsible for the end-user training may use different language to describe processes or functionality, or even a different flow than what was envisioned during design. These challenges are the reason why it is critical to keep the lines of communication open to ensure that the BA is in touch with the business processes and needs. The successful project is absolutely dependent on user adoption, and ongoing process improvements. The BA that has a strong relationship with the organization and change champions will be successful in ensuring that the implemented solution adds value by contributing to the organization's ability to meet its goals.
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0 # Doug Bonebrake 2011-01-05 00:48
I understand the points Steve is making and agree the BA has a leadership role in managing change, but I also agree with the above comments that the word "Champion" is misplaced. The Change Champion should be an executive charged with providing leadership and ensuring the project team has the necessary resources to enact the change and achieve business goals and objectives. The Change Champion also seeks to remove obstacles which hinder the project team's ability to communicate, educate and implement the change. The BA, as a Change Agent, collaborates with other key roles of the project team to specify the business need, specify what the solution must do and enables the planning, communication, education and implementation of the change. This can often require that the BA take a leadership role to enable the integrated project team to accomplish these tasks. BAs can paticipate in the change process at a variety of levels. The more senior the BA, the more significant role they will play towards influencing the cultural environment in which the change will be implemented. I believe Steve makes several valuable points as to the people, analysis, planning and communication skills required of the BA and that their role goes well beyond simply specifying the requirements. They must be an advocate within the integrated project team to enable achievement of business goals and objectives. Th e size, scope and complexity of the change may also require the company to establish a Change Management Office to enable success. This organization should not be confused with the standard processes associated with system changes, rather, it is the organization which is charged with managing the planning, communication and education necessary to prepare the organizational culture to embrace and adopt the change. Especially at the enterprise level, more senior and experienced BAs are will suited to support this organization. From my personal soapbox, the bottom line is that while effectiveness, efficiency and process improvement may be the goal – it cannot be achieved without first assessing and controlling issues associated with total organizational training, experience and culture.
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0 # Dawn Metcalf 2011-01-05 03:10
Good article to promote the need for professional change management and change managers in an organization. I believe the role of change management is to identify and mitigate the human risks associated with planning and executing enterprise initiatives or projects tasked with ensuring all stakeholders, including leadership, are engaged, committed to, and accepting of, changes made in an organization from change inception to change retirement and/or end of life. Also, there are levels of change management. For example: 1) enterprise CM, and, 2) Project CM. I believe the CM that Steve Blash refers to is 2), project CM. As well, there are different types of change that require a different change management approaches, i.e., transitional, developmental or transformationa l change. The fact that a BA serves as change agent (preferrable under the direction and guidance of a change manager/leader) and becomes deeply involved in 'championing' the overall change strategy is commendable, but to think that BAs are 'the' champions of change is, in my opinion, a bit short sighted. Over the course of my career, I have worked as a BA, PM and as a result of being engaged in those professions have transitioned to professional change management. I witnessed and experienced the lack of appreciation for the impact of change on employees and organizations and especially how the profession has been viewed as a soft skill as opposed to a 'hard', strategic skill whose outputs are required for success. I have heard the comment, "IT failed to deliver" too many times. I know from direct experience that the business, more often than not, resists the practice of change management. They view it as a communciation and training effort only. They couldn't be more misguided. I have witnessed PMs, who, with the best of intentions, request a CM resource to write communications and plan training, but then resist the bigger message that CM brings to the project table. Change management is a strategic discipline that can save organizations time and money. BAs wanting to 'C'hampion change, might consider switching to the change management discipline and obtain certification. Change management has been around as a discipline since at least the 70s; it has evolved as a practice in the same manner as business analysis and project management. It is now being recognized as a 'requirement' for success. Organizations are beginning to recognize that without it, their ideas, initiatives and projects risk failure.
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0 # Bennett Mendes 2011-01-13 06:55
If the new change flows smoothly, is friendly, faster, intuitive, resolves the users issues and generally makes their job more enjoyable, it will sell itself and be readily acceptable.
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0 # Allen 2011-02-03 07:31
I agree completely with your statement that change management is a strategic discipline. It is not something which can be done on the fly and to be effective at applying change management principles the BA must have the requisite education and certification. BA's who claim to be CM experts do an injustice to others who have taken the time and trouble to get certified.
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0 # Martin J Riley 2011-02-11 00:50
Business Change needs to be a separate strand of the project. The BA should be identifying those departments, teams and functions that are going to be subject to the change as part of any Business Operational Design. However once that is agreed/signed off then a Business Change function should be charged with ensuring the communication, buy-in and facilitation of the change with the business. Ideally that should involve the BA and SMEs so that work arounds can be developed as necessary should issues arise
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0 # Rita Mockeviciute 2011-05-18 00:41
Great article. It's all about what I was always thinking about, but never had enough time to reach it after the project is complete. Nevertheless, within our company we are using the Value realization 6 months or more (depends on a project) after the project completion date. It also allows everybody to review how the solution has been accepted and used as well as to repeat the training if needed. I find it a good practice basically to cover the things described in the article
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