Business Readiness isn’t just a buzzword, it’s a survival skill when releasing any change successfully. It’s a framework that ensures your wider business is ready and confident in your changes, reduces risks and gives clarity on day one. Change is the only constant in a business, so you need to get it right. It’s not the strongest who survive anymore, it’s the most adaptable.
So, are you just ticking a box, or are you getting your business ready?
Before any change goes live, good governance ensures there is usually a meeting between all the decision makers to review what’s happened to prepare the change. They then agree whether they feel enough work has been done to deliver this in the best way possible. This is usually referred to as a ‘Go/No Go’ decision or a ‘confirmation to proceed’.
If you sit in a ‘go/no go’ conversation next time your business is about to agree a change, pay attention to the people in the room. Are any of them from outside of the project world or senior management? The operational teams or distributions teams for example. Are you confident the right people made decisions before this point and have provided the evidence?
Getting this right means sharing what the change is with all areas of your organisation and making sure they agree there’s no impact to them, if there is, then they can help shape what they need to make the delivery a success. You can make assumptions but there’s a famous saying about that… There may not be any change in the way a business unit interacts with a system, but they likely have expectations or timing agreements from another team who are impacted, so would benefit from being kept informed. You should have access to procedure flows and guides that are regularly maintained by the areas that use them, to help you decipher this and anything else they will need.
Sometimes, individuals can see the operational teams as a hinderance because “they ask too many questions” or “are too negative” about the change to let them be part of it. It’s probably worth asking yourself why that is? When did you design and create the business case for this change? If the answer is three years ago there’s a strong chance there has been a lot of change in their world since this point. Although these might not be technical changes, what is about to be implemented could make their, and your end stakeholders’, lives a lot harder.
You don’t have to act on their feedback and questions, but you should explain why. This means when they are asked the question from the customer, they are comfortable and informed about the change to promote it. Equally, you might not have been given the right people from the right teams, so sense check. Don’t just disregard them.
While the project manager is going through their evidence in the final Go/No Go, really consider the data used to confirm the business is ready. Pay close attention to the success criteria, is it all purely based on the technology looking like it’s working for the specific change? Have they tested it as part of a wider process? Does what they’re showing give the full picture of the planning and results or are you only seeing the bits that look good. Who signed that off? Who tested the systems? There may have been a decision that the business didn’t need to be involved in because it’s “just a small tech change”. Who agreed that and why? How are they sure? Another question to have in the back of your head is, If I say no go, will they listen, or are they just ticking a box? If you are asking yourself any of these questions at the Go/No Go – it’s likely your business isn’t ready, but the pressure to deliver could mean the change will go ahead anyway. That is, unless you have a clear framework in place beforehand to give formally agreed deliverables from your wider business.
You’ll have a date you want to go live, and you’ll push your hardest to make sure, as a project and decision maker, that this date is met. That’s the right thing to do, plans are imperative to delivery, or change would never happen. Why though, when that date arrives, do we really push for that go decision? Is it because it costs too much not too? You need to consider the cost if it goes wrong. Especially if your operational teams aren’t confident in the ‘so what’ for them or you’re not prepared with a return to green plan should something unexpected happen.
Regulatory costs, complaint pay outs and most importantly, stakeholder trust can cost you much more than holding out an extra two weeks to make sure the right teams have tested the systems, had the right training and even seen copies of any external communications. You’ll be amazed at the difference in success on day one if you’re processing and distribution teams feel part of the change and not like they’ve had the change done to them.
To fail to plan is a plan to fail…
I’m not talking about your delivery plan! A business readiness plan will make a significant difference in the way your project lands. Check you’ve really considered the teams in all aspects and not just assumed they’ll be hard work, or they’ll be alright with the change because it’s only small or it won’t impact them. All because you’ve been ‘burnt before’. Really ask yourself why that happened and was it them, or the pressure to get the change in?
Check you’ve really considered all the elements; focus on the people in the room, the data presented and what changes have occurred since the business case was created. Always ask the questions. The key is to not make assumptions. So many times, organisations have fallen into the trap of thinking ‘it will be fine because the change is only small’ or ‘it won’t impact them’. Check and answer all those questions and it will help you determine the answer to ‘Your project team is ready, but is your business?’
