The Marriage of Change Management and Project Management

An ERP system is a complex blending of multiple workflows, deep-seated in the organization and demanding commitment, resource, and skill to successfully implement. These skills include project management, budget control, and data management, among others. We have written about some of these requirements in the past. In this article, however, we are focused on one, little-discussed implementation skill, and that is change management.

Change management is a science unto itself, distinct from project management. It is the practice of transitioning an organization from the current to a future state by preparing and enabling the people involved to do things differently. It has little to do with the new software or new technology and has everything to do with the behavioral and cultural factors that are intrinsic to user adoption. In short, it is a good example of beneficial social engineering.

Installing a new ERP system certainly falls into this category of “doing things differently.” People are often naturally resistant to change for any number of reasons including perceived threats to job security, a loss of control, and the general fear of the unknown. Consequently, employing the best practices of change management is a must-do that often means expert practitioners. So, if change management experts are an essential part of an ERP Implementation Team, what do they do and how does it differ from project management?

The Steps of Change Management

A first step, assuming that leadership is already committed, is to clearly communicate the reasons for the change to the entire company. If people are helped to understand why the project is needed and how it aligns with the company’s strategic goals, they are far more likely to be part of the solution. These communications must be continual and collaborative, and should include:

• the project scope (what is in and what is not)
• a map of all stakeholders, divided into key, primary and secondary categories
• an implementation strategy and schedule of how it affects each group and person
• performance metrics, and lastly
• the key influencers onboard EARLY

Readiness Assessment

The process should start with a Readiness Assessment that identifies all risks and how they must be mitigated. Past project successes and failures should be reviewed as they may indicate to a good degree how things will go in the new project. A habit and culture of winning is not a natural state and has to be developed. Having assessed the risks, how do we get the message through?

Persuading people to accept and embrace change is hard work, demanding a collaborative and empathetic approach. These collaboration skills are not automatically inborn in all individuals (even in leadership) and so training and retraining are necessary. This training is customized to meet individual’s needs built on information gathered in the Readiness Assessment, with the aim of reducing anxiety, building consensus, and mitigating resistance. This is not to be confused with training for operating the new system and its technology. Employees must see collaboration demonstrated every day throughout the company, and most importantly, from the top.

You cannot turn it on like a tap – it must be grown. Management must emphasize to all employees at every opportunity that these skills are viewed as a top priority, and a culture of learning and innovation is required for this to prevail. There are no “guilty” parties when things go wrong, just supportive review, adjustment, and continuous improvement. Equally, when things go well, let us celebrate!

The Marriage

Change management activities are conducted concurrently with project management. Each informs the other. For example, information from project meetings such as the status of user acceptance testing should be used to adjust readiness training and change planning.

Metrics and custom KPIs inform both change management and project management experts and solidify the link between the project status and the stated organizational and financial goals. These metrics should highlight not just system and process performance, but also the organization that supports those processes, which may indicate transition difficulties and help set a course of remediation for groups or individuals. The change management team is responsible for defining these metrics as well as compensation changes, hiring and onboarding tactics and plans.

In summary, project management is focused on the development and installation of workflow tools and skills needed to implement the new ERP system. It is concerned with time schedules and cost performance. Change management is a partner process to the above and is primarily there to ensure that all employees and stakeholders embrace and adopt the new solution, given that the change presents challenges for many people.

As the goal is the same for both Project and Change Management, the two disciplines should be aligned early in the project, with joint communications, and joint teams where all interests are known and coordinated. An ERP project requires harmony between the technical execution and the human-centric issues, and given that rapport, much of the project risk can be minimized.

 

 

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