Change Portfolio Management
|
Organizations today are facing, and creating, more change than
ever before. The frequency, number, size and importance of
change all continue to increase. Senior leaders are focused on
making the right decisions and investments with limited capital.
Project teams are consumed with finding the right solution to
the opportunity or issue they are addressing with their projects. Managers and supervisors are working to keep the
business running while implementing changes to how that work
gets done. The unfortunate reality, though, is that no one is
keeping tabs on all of the change happening - the portfolio of
change. Front-line employees are often the only ones who know
how much change is actually occurring because they are the ones
who encounter it each and every day.
In an effort to address this common and sometimes costly situation,
Prosci has developed a process and set of tools for managing the
portfolio of change. While there is no silver bullet, the
approach highlighted below (and presented in full in the
Change Portfolio
Toolkit) can help organizations to understand, evaluate and
manage the portfolio of changes they face.
Introduction and definition
Change Portfolio Management is the structured approach and
set of tools for understanding, evaluating and managing the
portfolio of change. It involves taking an inventory of
the changes underway and their impact. Some headway has been
made in what is being called Project Portfolio Management, but
these efforts are often limited to tracking the timing, scope
and resource needs of project teams across multiple projects. Change Portfolio Management
is different - it aims to show the cumulative and collective
impact of the changes in the portfolio on the people throughout
the organization.
|
Prosci's new Change Portfolio Toolkit is now
available. This product provides a step-by-step
process and full set of tools for managing the
portfolio of change. Visit the main page for the
Change Portfolio
Toolkit to learn more.
|
|
Why change portfolio management is needed
There are a number of reasons organizations need an approach for
managing the portfolio of change underway. The most common reasons
for such an approach include:
-
The ever increasing amount of change organizations are facing
- The pace and amount of change is not decreasing. Organizations
are facing more external drivers of change, including the
competitive landscape and a need to stay ahead of the changing
demands of customers. Likewise, internal drivers to become more
effective and efficient are continuing to emerge. Across the board,
the amount of change is on the rise.
-
The potential for change saturation - Change
saturation occurs when there is more change than individuals and
groups in the organization can handle. Each individual and group in
an organization has a change capacity that they can tolerate.
However, when the amount of change disruption exceeds this change
capacity, there are negative implications. Individuals become
stressed, confused and disengaged. Projects begin suffering.
Overall, the organization's productivity declines. A portfolio
perspective provides insight into potential change saturation.
-
The consequences of change collision - When
there is not a view of the portfolio of change, initiatives and
projects begin to collide. Collisions occur on numerous fronts,
including budgets for change efforts, human resources needed to
support the initiatives, time requirements by people involved and
mindshare of employees. In the absence of a portfolio perspective,
these collisions cannot be evaluated and alleviated - and each
project and initiative suffers.
Prosci Change Portfolio Management Process
| Prosci's Change Portfolio
Management Process is pictured on the right. It involves five
distinct phases - 1) Identify, 2) Investigate, 3) Analyze, 4)
Act and 5) Monitor. The process provides
specific, concrete activities for evaluating, understanding and
managing the portfolio of change.
The goal of the process is not to arrive at a single, numeric
value for the quantity of initiatives that the organization can
tolerate. Rather, the goal of Change Portfolio Management is to
bring clarity and visibility to the portfolio of change
currently underway. With a better view and more concrete data
about the portfolio, senior leaders and the organization are in
a better position to prioritize and to mitigate the consequences
of change saturation and change collision.
The Change
Portfolio Toolkit includes a complete set of activities
and tools to support the Change Portfolio Management Process.
|
Prosci's Change Portfolio Management Process |
| Process phase |
Activities and Outcomes |
| Identify |
The Identify phase is about setting the
parameters for the portfolio analysis. It includes
establishing the scope of the portfolio analysis, which
could be the entire organization but could also be smaller
in nature - looking at changes that impact a particular
department, division, region or type/source of change (for
instance, changes initiated by the IT group). The Identify
phase
involves looking for both project and non-project
change occurring throughout the organization - starting with
the "usual suspects" who initiate many changes. Finally, a
schematic of organizational groups is created to enable
mapping of changes to the impacted groups.
Tools in the Change Portfolio Toolkit to support the Identify phase:
- Scope statement
- Change inventory worksheet
- Groups inventory worksheet
|
| Investigate |
The Investigate phase involves collecting and
generating data on the changes in the portfolio. The first
step is collecting a common set of information on each initiative
in the portfolio - including budget, timeline and key
players for each change effort. A series of assessments
allow you to gauge the change management risk and the
overall project health of each change in the portfolio.
Finally, a mapping exercise is used to show which groups in
the organization are impacted by each of the changes in the
portfolio using the Group Impact Matrix. A key benefit of
this phase is the collection of a common set of data for
each and every change in the portfolio.
Tools in the Change Portfolio Toolkit to support the
Investigate phase:
- Change Scorecard
- Change characteristics assessment
- Organizational attributes assessment
- Prosci PCT assessment
- Group Impact Matrix
|
| Analyze |
The Analyze phase is where conclusions about the
portfolio are reached.
Heat Maps are created which show a graphic depiction of
change impact and the overall level of change disruption and
saturation on groups throughout the organization. Plots are
used to provide numerous perspectives on the portfolio and
its current status. All of the data form
the Investigate phase is analyzed and computed using
the Portfolio Dashboard - which captures in a single
snapshot the positioning and risk of the portfolio.
Tools in the Change Portfolio Toolkit to support the
Analyze phase:
- Change Heat Maps
- Organizational Heat Map
- Investment vs. Strategic importance plot
- Investment vs. Gap plot
- Investment vs. Scope plot
- Strategic importance/Gap/Scope worksheet
- People risk plot
- People risk worksheet
- Schedule collision diagram
- Schedule collision analysis worksheet
- Investment vs. Risk vs. Project Health graph
- Investment vs. Risk vs. Health worksheet
- Portfolio Dashboard
- Portfolio Dashboard statistics analysis
|
| Act |
The Act phase move from analysis to
action. Here, risks to projects, groups, points in time and
the organization as a whole are identified. The portfolio is
presented to key business leaders and others in the
organization who need a portfolio view of the change
underway. Conclusions and decisions on how to adjust the
portfolio are made based on the information provided through
the process.
Tools in the Change Portfolio Toolkit to support the
Act phase:
- Changes at risk worksheet
- Groups at risk worksheet
- Point-in-time worksheet
- Change portfolio SWOT analysis
- Tips for effective portfolio presentation
- Presentation template
- Portfolio action checklist
|
| Monitor, Manage and Control |
The final phase involves bring the portfolio perspective
into how the organization manages change efforts on an
ongoing basis. Particular attention is paid to how changes
enter and exit the portfolio, and what lessons the
organization can learn by taking an enterprise perspective.
As changes are evaluated and introduced, the impact on the
overall portfolio is evaluated. As changes exit the
portfolio, analysis on the outcomes and lessons learned is
conducted.
Tools in the Change Portfolio Toolkit to support the
Monitor, Manage and Control phase:
- New change worksheet
- Change effort “exit interview” worksheet
- Learning from changes leaving the portfolio
|
Summary
A holistic process for managing the portfolio of change does not
magically solve the problem of change collision and change saturation.
However, following this process provides a new perspective and view of
the portfolio - one that is missing in most organizations. Individuals,
groups, projects and the organization all benefit when the portfolio of
change is more actively evaluated and managed.
Offerings for applying Prosci's change management methodologies:
Training:
-
Change
management certification ($2100) - 3-day program where you bring
a project you are working on and apply all of the assessments and
tools as you learn them - taught by former fortune 500 executives at
locations across the US - includes over $1000 in products, including
the Best Practices in Change Management benchmarking report, the
Change Management Toolkit and the Change Management Pilot 2010
-
Train-the-trainer ($2300) - learn
how to teach Prosci change management training programs in your
organization
- Onsite training
- bring Prosci to your location for 3-day certification programs,
4-6 hour executive briefings, 1-day manager programs or 1-day
employee programs - call +1-970-203-9332 for more information
Methodology tools:
-
Change Management Toolkit ($349) - hardcopy 3-ring binder presenting
Prosci's change management methodology, includes templates, checklists
and assessments for managing the people side of change (includes CD-ROM)
- Change
Management Pilot Pro 2010 ($449) - online tool including Prosci's change
management methodology, eLearning modules and downloadable templates,
assessments, presentations and checklists
-
Change
Management Guide for Managers and Supervisors ($189) -
tools to help supervisors engage and coach their direct reports
through change (includes 4 copies of the Employee's Survival Guide)
-
PCT Analyzer ($149/$349) -
web-based tool for collecting PCT Assessment data, analyzing
results, identifying risks and developing action steps
References and books:
-
Best Practices in Change Management benchmarking report
($249 / quantity discounts available) - journal-style report with lessons learned and best practices
from 575 participants, presented in an easy-to-use format - reads as
a checklist of what to do and what not to do
-
Change Management: the people side of change ($18.95 /
quantity discounts available) - a primer for anyone
involved in organizational change that addresses why manage change,
individual change management and organizational change management
-
ADKAR: a model for
change ($18.95 / quantity discounts available) - the definitive work
on Prosci's ADKAR® Model
-
Employee's Survival Guide to Change ($14.95 / quantity discounts
available) - a handbook to help
employees survive and thrive during change, answers frequently asked
questions and empowers employees to take charge of change
*** Prosci also offers
leadership packages - groupings of products at discounts that
offer you some of the most helpful and common combinations of Prosci
change management resources
Email this page to a friend
Email a Prosci analyst or
call 970-203-9332 with questions about the methodology, its application, or finding the
right resources to support your change management activities.
|
