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Combining Change Management and Project Management

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depicting an unexpected change to a project and how it is managed
Recognize change and make modifications before it is harmful to your project.

There is great value in the strategic combination of change management and project management within the operations of a company. Change management is a method used to help a company adapt to changes from internal and external factors. Project management on the other hand is the process of organizing large projects and coaching a team throughout each milestone. The integration of both allows a company to make changes on both a technical and employee level.

Although change management and project management are both structured methods there are different characteristics to each. Change management for instance is a structured process in implementing change; however, there is no defined goal requiring multiple shifts to approach strategies. In contrast, project management is defined by a specific end goal as well as project milestones throughout. Project managers can plan their entire project before beginning whereas change managers are presented with unexpected changes throughout the process. 

The integration of both management approaches within technological systems and employee management can lead your company to greater opportunity for success. This allows for problems to be identified, changes to be made, employees to be informed, and issues to be resolved.

Why Project Managers should Integrate Change Management into their Strategy

Individual and shared goals

Project Managers and Change managers can work together to reach a shared objective while also working independently towards specific goals. The integration of both can work to improve employee performance and overall company success. 

Project Team Communication

The integration of these two strategies makes for greater communication between all roles within the project. For example, when an unexpected development arises the project team is presented with the issue in a timely manner and change managers begin to adjust project plans. This fast recognition of an issue and communication of important strategic adjustments is attributed to the integration of the two management approaches. 

Employee Commitment

Project managers know how unexpected changes can occur and how that can hinder the progress of the project. It is important to be able to identify these issues immediately and have solutions or modifications. This proactive organization of changes to the project will motivate employees to embrace the change rather than be afraid of it.

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How to Avoid Project Interruptions

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Are you productive working around others? Do you work well with project interruptions and are you able to easily get back on track and focused on issues and tasks you were working on before the interruption? Or can an interruption at a critical point stop your forward progress and send you chasing rabbits on something that may not be nearly as important just because you want to get this new issue off your plate as quickly as possible?

[Read more…] about How to Avoid Project Interruptions

The Most Significant Project Management Challenges are…

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Selecting the proper project management tools

The project management and resource management survey of 151 IT executives found the most significant challenge to project management administration was using the wrong tools to perform project management processes. (IMTS Survey)

Let’s talk about the basics.  Like needing a frying pan to make fried eggs – there are certain basics that every profession requires.  When the basics are not “in” then it’s difficult, if not impossible, to achieve consistent results. If a carpenter used the wrong tools to do the job they wouldn’t be a carpenter very long would they? They would be tired and crabby, and their customers would be upset.  They wouldn’t be able to cut, fashion and fasten wood together to make houses or furniture. If they could build houses or furniture with the wrong tools, they could not do it consistently, in a timely fashion or with any elegance whatsoever.
It’s the same with IT and project management; wrong tools equal an inconsistent, challenging and rough result with unhappy, overworked staff and dissatisfied customers.
Further digging into the issues around “wrong tools” reveals that most of these tools have common challenges including:

  • They are not in use by the entire project team, or they are meant only for the project manager or just for support or DevOps.
  • They don’t include information about the other activities of their team members, i.e., support activities, project work or personal calendars.
  • They are a challenge for team members to integrate with — just another system to add to their list of systems. Buy-in on system usage then becomes a problem with team members deciding to opt out or provide minimal or spotty compliance.

These factors and other less common cultural or situational factors combine to make the Manager’s job challenging and administrative processes ineffective. When these factors are compounded the team members are scheduled on projects when they don’t have capacity, and impossible timelines are provided to customers. These two mismanaged processes alone can derail an organization; create chaos, cost overruns and impact morale negatively.

Our Conclusion:

When looking for tools for project management and resource management the two topics can’t be easily divorced – then look for the following traits:

  1. The tool needs to address the bulk of IT work across all of your IT domains.   If you have teams for support, development, operations, ERP, tech, networks, data…. However, you break them up you need to include them in the IT work management system.
  2. Get a tool that delivers the whole picture. There is no sense in deploying a project management tool that doesn’t take into account support activities. The key reason that projects are delayed is the support team itself.
  3. Adopt a system that your team can integrate with. It’s important to integrate with other systems but, critical to your success is the team’s ability to use the tool.
  4. ls and get better results. After all – using the carpenter analogy – aren’t tools used to get consistent results quicker?

Entry Software Corporation has been working with Project Managers, IT Managers and CIO’s to not only understand the project and IT administration issues but to be part of the solution to them. 

Download the results of our 2014 Survey “Challenges Facing IT Leaders when Managing Planned and Unplanned Work in Disparate Systems.”

Image credit: Frits Ahlefeldt-Laurvi, https://www.flickr.com/photos/hikingartist/
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