One option for deployment of the change is to phase it in gradually over a period of time. There may be some characteristics of what you’re deploying that won’t allow for the change to be phased in, but at least ask some of the following questions to see if it might be option:People characteristics
- Is there a specific business area that is more likely to be successful with change, perhaps based on past experience, or characteristics of the people that are in the business unit?
Services characteristics
- What are the new services that you are going to ask your resources / organization to provide?
- When can you be prepared to provide those new services, and what are the steps that need to happen to be ready - training, new hiring, marketing, human resources aligned, etc.?
Process characteristics
- Does the entire process change, or can you change only one activity, or a subset of activities, within a process?
- Can the process be isolated to do a controlled / phased change?
- What returns the most value… what are the activities in the process that can provide the most benefit by being improved -- do you want to deploy those first?
- What are the characteristics of the process, are they complex enough to prove out the value of the change, while not being so complex that the results of the change are obscured and the process is very hard to implement (if it takes building a new factory, this is an expensive way to prove a point about your process!)
Technology characteristics
- Does the change require new infrastructure to be in place, and does it need to be a turnkey operation -- complete cutover of everything at a specified time?
- If not a turnkey deployment, how long will the old technology still be around to support a gradual move to the new?
General characteristics
- How quickly do you need to be able to collect metrics to prove out the value from the change, larger deployment chunks will take longer to provide metrics?
- Will this be piloted, or is it a wholesale change - can it be piloted with a small, simple, controlled environment but large enough to capture meaningful results and feedback?
Organizational characteristics
- Deploy to a complete organizational unit - this means depth of training and mentoring in one business area
- Leverage business areas that are interested and willing (early adopters)
Change team characteristics
- How many organizational units does the change team have the capacity to support at one time during deployment?