Conducting a Robust Enterprise Change Assessment

Michael Benning, IpX Executive Director True North CalibrationConducting a Robust Enterprise Change Assessment"We dont have time to follow the process, but somehow, we have time to do it twice."Robustly assessing product changes is crucial for several reasons, impacting the success, efficiency, and sustainability of a product or project. Here are some key reasons why conducting a thorough assessment of product changes is important:Value-adds:Improved Decision-Making: First and foremost, a thorough change assessment ensures the organization is deploying scarce resources progressing the right opportunities. A robust and holistic assessment drives a deeper and more complete understanding of the impacts of the proposed changes from multiple perspectives.Risk Mitigation: Identifying potential risks and challenges early on allows for proactive mitigation strategies. This can prevent costly mistakes and project delays.Quality Assurance: Rigorous cross-functional assessments contribute to maintaining or improving product quality. This is essential for customer satisfaction and loyalty.Cost Estimation: A detailed assessment promotes accurately estimating the costs associated with proposed changes. This is crucial for robust budgeting, resource allocation, and ultimately, decision-making.Regulatory Compliance: Ensuring proposed changes comply with relevant regulations and standards is essential. Robust change assessments help identify and address compliance issues.Innovation Opportunities: Assessments may reveal opportunities for innovation and improvement beyond the initial scope of the proposed changes.Watchouts:Time-Consuming & Resource Intensive: Conducting robust assessments can be time-consuming and resource intensive. Scaling assessments to be change-appropriate, can avoid delays in implementation timelines.Complexity: Many changes involve complex technical details, making it challenging for non-technical stakeholders to fully grasp the implications and add value.Analysis Paralysis: There is a risk of overanalyzing changes, especially if the assessment process becomes excessively detailed. This can lead to diminishing returns on the invested time and effort. Accounting for unpredictable future factors, such as shifts in market trends or emerging technologies as 2 examples can bog down the assessment exercise.Best Practices:Tailored Approach: Perhaps the most important key to success in conducting robust change assessments is scaling the assessment to meet the needs of the proposed change. Ideally, this serves to optimize the investment of time and resources required to identify a robust way forward. Often it is best to assign the role of defining a fit-for-purpose assessment on a per-change basis.Clearly Define Objectives: Clearly articulate and document the goals and objectives of the proposed change. This provides a focused direction for the assessment particularly impactful for complex changes and helps in identifying key performance indicators.Cross-Functional Engagement: Involve stakeholders from impacted functions as required, including engineering, marketing, finance, supply chain and manufacturing / operations. This ensures a comprehensive evaluation and considers diverse perspectives.Impact Analysis: Evaluate the impact of the proposed changes on various aspects, including product performance, production processes, supply chain, and customer satisfaction. Consider a structured, checklist-based approach. This analysis helps in understanding the full scope of the project. Consider the entire product life cycle, from design and production to distribution and disposal. Assess the environmental impact, sustainability, and potential for future upgrades or modifications.Cost-Benefit Analysis: Conduct a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis to assess the financial viability of the proposed changes. Consider both direct and indirect costs, along with potential revenue gains.Documentation and Communication: Document all aspects of the assessment, including methodologies, findings, and recommendations. Communicate the results effectively to all stakeholders, ensuring transparency and understanding.After the product changes are implemented, conduct a post-implementation evaluation to assess the actual outcomes against the predicted ones. Learn from the experience for future assessments. By incorporating these best practices, the effectiveness of the change assessment process and increase the likelihood of successful product changes can be improved.Need help on improving your change assessment process or in learning how to make robust decisions without a lot of rigor? Reach out to IpX for a few hours of staff augmentation support and achieve quick wins and quantitative results.Suggested Links:Change Impact Assessments: How to Fix Something Without Breaking EverythingUnderstanding Change Control ProcessAuthor: Michael BenningMichael Benning, Executive Director of True North Calibration, brings over 25 years of experience in various project and operations management roles in the oil and gas and manufacturing sectors. Prior to joining IpX, Michael was the Director of Program Management and was tasked with establishing a Change & Configuration Management competence based on CM2 principles at a tier-1 automotive manufacturer. This global competency included 2 Change Leaders, 1 Change Implementation Leader, 2 Audit Release Analysts, a Director of Change Management, and had direct oversight to the CAD services team. In addition to rationalizing existing product portfolios, and integrating CM2 principles with legacy engineering and operations processes, the team implemented a configurator platform. Connect on LinkedInAlways Evolve With IpXIpX believes organizational sustainability, scalability and transformation are born from the continual evolution of people, processes, systems and data. Through our leading workforce development platform known as the IDEA Academy, our CM2 standard and certification courses, True North professional services, and digital solution advisement, we enable your organization to always evolve based on a functional blueprint for the ecosystem of tomorrow. Drive innovation, create a better customer experience, and enable your workforce as an organization built for change, speed, quality and resiliency. www.ipxhq.com