Considering the costs for acquiring the new product and paying for training is not enough – the complexity risks presented by introducing a new technology to your environment should be added to your change management assessment process. Introducing new technology that involves only 1 platform (PC, Server or mainframe) adds two “complexity points” to the change; new technology that involves more than one platform (a combination of PC, server or mainframe) adds 4 complexity points; modifying the project by adding a new technology element that is already installed, is stable and is working in your environment adds one complexity point. A sample complexity point assessment process will be provided at the end of this article. Information Technology examples are used in the above scenario – this concept can be applied to any technology field such as engineering, construction, aerospace, etc.

Process steps change

Projects commonly involve more than just technology change; they typically add or modify business processes and procedures as well. The combination of a technology or tool change and a business process change that is introduced to the customer environment at the same time is inherently complex. End customers are faced with changes in HOW they perform the tasks they are held accountable to perform, along with the tools they use to perform them. Users must appropriately visualize a new process and the potential gaps and issues that it might produce. The project team must work diligently to provide appropriate requirements collection on the front end, and testing of those requirements throughout the project.

When additional process steps are altered or added to the scope of the project, this creates the need to adjust the core deliverables of the project, but also the requirements collection, testing and training deliverables as well. Errors and omissions are more likely in these areas and the verification of deliverables becomes more complex. Add one complexity point for every two process steps that are added or altered to project deliverables; add one point for each new department or organization that becomes involved in operating a process as a result of the change to the project.

New stakeholders

Stakeholders represent the lifeblood of a project; the perceptions of your stakeholders represent the nature of the status of your project. If the stakeholders are feeling confident in the project purpose and status and their expectations for the project’s impact on the business are uniform – the project is probably in good shape. Should any stakeholder have issues about the intent of the project, or the stakeholders are not “in synch” about the priorities for project deliverables, the overall status of the project is in jeopardy. With the perceptions of stakeholders having this affect on the day to day job of a project manager, stakeholder management is critical, essential, and time consuming. Changes that are introduced to the project that add stakeholders inherently add complexity; additional requirements prioritization, communication planning, expectations management and expands the verification that needs to be performed. In addition, the project manager is required to ensure that the new stakeholder(s) will not present conflicts with the stakeholders that are already a part of the project. This can be time consuming, frustrating and can have an impact on the project in many ways. Add one complexity point for the first one or two new stakeholders, and add another complexity point for every 2 stakeholders after that.

continue>>

<<back