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Change Management - Assessing the impact of changes
Having discussed the process of change in some depth, a word of caution is needed. Because electoral systems have psychological as well as mechanical effects, the long-term effect of changes may take some time to work through. Parties, candidates and voters may take two or three elections to fully observe and respond to the effects and incentives of particular changes. The tendency towards mixed systems may accentuate this, as the overall effect on candidates and voters of mixed incentives may be less clear.
First, it's important to understand the level of change that needs to take place in order to achieve your business objectives, so as to have a realistic appreciation of the effort required and the hurdles you will face along the way. We've categorized change into 3 broad levels, and provide a few examples below (slowly glide your mouse on the blue symbols for explanations):
- Low
- Minimal to moderate change to the way people work.
- Outsourcing a non-core business function which is commoditised, e.g.: Payroll;
- Day-to-day business and system improvements.
- Major
- When people need to align the way they work to the new technology or business change, but there is no change in corporate culture.
- Developing new channels to market, say via the internet or through strategic partners, within an innovative business;
- Divesting a non-core asset to focus on core business, e.g.: the distribution department of a manufacturing business;
- Reducing the workforce;
- Implementing Centres of Excellence in a nationwide business that already focuses on
- Radical
- When people not only have to change the way they work, but have to fundamentally change their mindset to fit into a new corporate culture.
- Developing new channels to market, say via the internet, within a traditional company that has no real-time systems or knowledge of internet business drivers;
- Transforming the business culture from independent silos to collaborative knowledge-sharing;
- Implementing integrated supply-chain software to replace a multitude of independent legacy systems;
- Company mergers.
Other ITIL Processes
In order to have a good understanding of ITIL and the importance of configuration management, we first define what ITIL is: ITIL is literally a collection of documentation.
This documentation can help IT organizations implement the best practices. The documentation grows and grows as more successful techniques are documented and guidelines established for what can make others successful. The latest ITIL resources are published by the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC).
Integrated service delivery refers to the need for Configuration Management, Change Management, Incident Management, Problem Management and Release Management processes that are linked together in a meaningful manner. For example, the process of releasing components to the live environment (the domain of Release Management) is also an issue for Configuration Management and Change Management whilst the Service Desk is primarily responsible for liaison between IT providers and the Users of services. This section highlights the links and the principal relationships between all the Service Management and other infrastructure management processes.
ITIL processes fall under Operational Layer or Tactical Layer, as follows:
| Operational Layer: | Configuration Management - Service Desk Management - Incident & Problem Management - Change Management - Release Management |
| Tactical Layer: | Service Level Management - Availability Management - Capacity Management - Continuity Management - Financial Management |