Change Management in IT projects

In the world of IT, almost everyone is involved with projects, directly or indirectly. While there are several standardised project methods, the human element behind the projects is neglected and normally does not play a bigger role, even though it significantly impacts the project's success or failure.

Project Landscape and Focus

Top Management but also Project Leaders often lack adequate insight into the changes a project will bring. Top Management is occupied mostly focusing on ensuring the strategic plans are executed. Project Leaders on the other hand focus mainly on deliverables and timelines. 

And what about addressing human dynamics?

The projects introduce societal and technological changes, and everything is done at a fast pace. Those changes impact people, and prioritising the human aspect must be done, mostly by learning from individuals' experiences in the "project universe".

Features vs Feelings

Projects often focus on delivering technical features, on the other side failing to address the human side of changes to be implemented.

Change Management needs to ensure that the functional features implemented are also embraced by users.

Good Practices doing Change Management

The employees (and generally all stakeholders, especially i.e. end users) should be involved already from the earliest stages of projects. By "involving" it is not only meant to explain what is going to be done, but much more to listen to them, hear their concerns, and address the resistance. So the Change Management needs to be started alongside project initiation, to enable the organisation integration to happen seamlessly with technical implementation.

To ensure smooth organisational transitions, the projects must not just be implemented but also adopted.

Do not Overload the Organisation

Oftentimes the top management's focus is much more on identifying what projects need to be launched to implement the company strategy, and the organisation's "project capacity" is forgotten. Launching too many projects simultaneously can overwhelm teams, leading to reduced benefits, sometimes even to project failures. Maintaining a manageable strategic pacing is crucial for both organisational health and project success.

Change Leaders' Mission, Core Qualities and Tools

To be successful as a Change Leader, those are the main focus points:

• Ensure the top management's support;
• Involvement, having the focus on a human-centred approach, prioritising the people impacted by the projects;
• Communication needs to be strong, clear, timely and effective;
• Collaboration with Project Leaders, and while they focus on execution, Change Leaders address the human and organisational challenges, thus aligning technical and emotional dimensions;
• Heatmaps help identify those departments most affected by projects, ensuring balanced workloads and readiness for change, avoiding overloading;
• Choosing and using one of the Change Management methods, like the ADKAR model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement) helps analyse and address resistance, and foster engagement.

Future of Change Management

The top management is increasingly recognising Change Management's significance for long-term success, and it’s evolving into a broader organisational role beyond individual projects.

Its importance will also grow as a result of continuous technological advancement, which is happening at an increasingly quicker pace.

To ensure sustainable growth, organisations must integrate change leadership into the core strategies.