The best way to convince our decision makers to initiate any project, including Change Management, is to present them with a Business case that:

validates the reasoning for starting a project,
indicates implementation risks
anticipates the benefits to be gained.

Ultimately, the business case is a way to secure funding and commitment.

To build a business case for change management, you’ll need to answer four key questions:

What is the Project or Task?

A business case must be specific and must describe clearly the proposed project or task. Your “project or task” is to apply a structured change management approach on a project or initiative.

Why are we doing it?

A business case has to answer the questions of why are we doing it, what is the motivation for initiating the project or task. For the change management business case, we will have to demonstrate that managing the people side of change significantly increase the probability that the anticipated benefits will be realized, the outcomes will be reached and the project will create value

Who are we trying to convince?

The audiences of a business case are the decision makers who can fund and support a project. For the change management business case, your likely audiences are senior leaders, project leaders and project managers.

What Actions we need to secure?

A business case often is used to obtain commitment and funding for the project or task. The actions you need are:

A commitment to apply change management on the project or initiative
The resources and funding to apply change management

Sections of the Business Case

The business case tells the story of the proposed project or task. In Prosci’s approach to a business case, there are eight sections:

Executive Summary

Give a succinct and concise presentation of vital information. This section summarizes your story.

Situational Assessment and Problem Statement

Directly connect the results, outcomes, value and benefit realization of the initiative to the people side of change. Do not describe or mention Change management when writing about the situational assessment and problem statement, but instead shows dependencies.

Project Description

Present the high-level description, scope, and objectives for the project or task. Remember that your task is apply change management and this is the task that you need to define not the general project.

Solution Description

Summarize your solution of applying change management and present milestones, work streams and measurements for change management. By using artifacts familiar to project leaders, such as milestones and work streams, you make change management tangible and less fuzzy.

Cost-Benefit Analysis

In this section, be very clear about the cost and resources needed for applying. Be equally clear about the anticipated benefits of applying change management. You will recall in the previous Change Diary on this topic (The Value of Change Management II) we discovered that there were 3 measures of change. Here is where you can establish targets for Adoption, Utilisation and Proficiency. These targets can be set-off against the costs to provide a net benefit (ROI) for doing the change (project). The benefits section should focus on the delivery of project results and outcomes and can include both the benefits we get from applying change management and what can happen if we do not apply change management. This last point can link to another important concept that would support doing change management – avoiding the inevitable risk of change. You know that change brings risks like loss of productivity. In this section you could not only show the positive effect of change management but also show how the lack of it could result in losses/costs for not achieving adoption and utilization.

Implementation Timeline

Map change management milestones to existing project milestones, such as kickoff and go-live. Change Management milestones would include items like; approval of Change Management Strategy, completion of initial Change Management plans, Reinforcement plan to ensure sustainability of the changes.

Critical Assumptions and Risk Assessment

Present a SWOT analysis (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats) and dependencies for applying change management. This can be linked to the cost avoidance discussion in the Cost-Benefit Analysis

Conclusions and Recommendations

Clearly articulate the “ask” (resources, funding, authorization, support, etc.). This builds confidence that your solution solves the presented situation.

Conclusion

This 3-part series on the Value of Change Management has traced a process you can adopt to commence, have and ultimately quantify the benefit of focusing on the people side of change for your project. This step in the deployment of change management in an organisation is vital to building maturity in change management and ultimately sustainable value in your organisation.

read and Change

The Value of Change Management – Part 3

What is the Project or Task?

Why are we doing it?

Who are we trying to convince?

What Actions we need to secure?

Conclusion