Project Change Management

What is Change Management?

Change Management can be explained as a process where the business needs to adapt new technology or a new process. No person is ready to change the process as the person is habituated and comfortable in using the process for years, this makes every person is unwilling to change the process in the business. But, the company should face the competition in the market to make a name of their business which leads to re-evaluate their business process and strategies to withstand the competition. This can be possible with the change management where your current business’s model and implementation should be re-evaluated to keep the business healthy, strong and competitive in the evolving market. Change Management depletes the fear of changing process which is unavoidable of successful implementation.

There are five components need to be considered in Change Management, they are

• Vision – The state of the business in upcoming future
• Skills – The capabilities which are available in the company
• Incentives – The motivations that lead to change
• Resources – The human power, methods and technologies handy to assist and escort to change
• Plan – The complete set of methods to implement a change

These five components are important for a change in the project that can measure the impact of change.

Business Analyst as a Change Manager

There is no relation between business analysis and change management these two are comes under different category. But, nowadays some organizations have given responsibilities of change management to Business Analysts in the preparation and execution of change management by contacting the stake holders throughout the project.

Tasks of Business Analyst in Change Management

1. Recognizing and Explaining the current state of the business
2. Providing Current data on the state of market
3. Researching how proposed changes may impact the project
4. Collecting Use-cases
5. Creating comprehensive plan
6. Preparing reports and present communicate motivations, options, changes and impact

Change Management will affect the scope of the project, where any project requirement that is not mentioned in the document as a part of the business requirement must be managed under a proper change management. The Business Analyst along with the project manager will review the change management process. When a change is inevitable the business analyst should

• Initially the change request should be documented by the business analyst
• Then the business analyst need to examine whether the change request is necessary or any defect is discovered from the previous communications
• The Business Analyst need to approval either from change request manager or from project manager to carry out with the further analyzing of change requested
• The Business Analyst or project manager should ensure whether the change request is complex/major or it is just a minor change prior to the confirmation of the incorporation of the change request
• If the change request is complex, it will affect the scope of the project as well as the desperate delay in the delivery of the project
• It is the responsibility of the business analyst to explain about the circumstances of change request and its impact on the project to the stake holders and assist to diminish the negative impacts which arouse from that particular change

A Business Analyst should always in contact with stake holders and keep on updating about the project details. A change request is successful when the stake holders agreed to the changes to be incorporated and business analyst need to diminish the delays in the delivery of the project to the stake holders.