What is Organizational Change Management?

Organizational Change Management is important for Agile Project Management because when we look at large enterprise projects this is most often the cause of failure. We have a stellar project manager, we have a superstar team of developers, a highly astute group of business analysts, and a core team of wizard architects, yet the project was still seen as a failure.

Why?

Because the most talented project delivery team and the most sophisticated whiz bang technology doesn't change the basics of human nature, and one of the basics of human nature is that people are resistant to change. OCM is a discipline that studies change in an organization (easy, right.)

Let me state it again: People hate change. As Agile project managers and technologists, we cannot continue to look at software development and packaged software implementations in a bubble. We need to recognize that the cause of 'perceived' failure for many a project is the lack of understanding and respect for how and why people are prompted to change.

I have looked at many technology project plans and have seen no provisions for guiding the organization through the change curve. Zero understanding or respect paid to training the users.

Here I only want to communicate that, don't just think about the developers, DBAs, architects, testers, and business analysts. Think about a:

• Communication plan (early and often).
• Think about how you can get executive leadership to take a visible role in enabling change in the organization.
• Think about how you can expose the organization to the project progress, goals, and value.
• In short, think about our customers.