If you have found yourself in a situation where process seem to change constantly and be inconsistent, accountabilities are uncertain and deadlines keep getting missed, then perhaps you have a people, process and technology problem. Whether implementing a new system, or improving the effectiveness of an existing software system, getting all 3 aligned is absolutely essential to ensuring a change process will work.
And they have to be resolved in that order.
1. People – what are the key issues: who owns the process, who is involved, what are their roles, are they committed to improving it and working together, and importantly are they prepared to do the work to fix the problem
2. Process – a process can be defined as starting with a trigger event that creates a chain of actions that results in something being prepared for a customer of that process. Starting at high level and identifying the key big steps is important to see the process from end to end. Then moving into more detail to capture the various layers involved and various exceptions. Focussing on the high frequency (Pareto principle) transactions can have significant benefit to standardising the process. But also remember that it can be the non-standard transactions where service is slipping most or the potential for significant failure in the process may exist.
3. Technology – Now that people are aligned, and the process developed and clarified, technology can be applied to ensure consistently in application of the process and to provide the thin guiding rails to keep the process on track – to make it easier to follow the process than not do so.
Of course there is much more to getting a software implementation / technology project right – but get the above 3 sorted out and you will be a long way down the path to project success.
Are you change ready? Complete the Change Success Diagnostic to understand your readiness – and significantly improve your chances of achieving a successful software implementation.
