One of the best places to start ‘changing change management’ is through classic business process re-engineering. These efforts show the greatest gains when looking at workflows that are more complex (have a greater number of steps and approvals) and cross three or more areas (silos) in going from start to finish. Organizations that have not base-lined and re-engineered the top five to six high-volume workflows in IT can see efficiency gains of up to 25-40%.

To calculate the value of re-engineering, select three high-volume workflows crossing three or more areas. Examples may include IT security approval processes, medium-level software programming changes (such as 20 to 40 hours of code development), IT procurement actions and server operating systems or database upgrades:

• Using a spreadsheet, interview those involved from end to end to create the ‘as-is’ process state. Review the workflow for unnecessary steps, duplicative activities, excessive manual activities, excessive delays and rework caused by inaccuracies and errors due to poor end-to-end understanding and communication.
• Build the desired state by devising the most simple, streamlined approach to meet the business requirements and assume the use of basic Change Management technology to automate communications and workflow.
• Measure the expected change in efficiency and elapsed time.

This kind of measurable gain can go a long way in convincing executive management to invest in re-engineering change management in your IT organization.

I’d love to hear how you calculate business gains from re-engineered change processes in your organization.

Also, Don’t forget to register for Evergreen’s change management webinar: Take Change Management from Firefighting to Fire Prevention

Joe