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Chapter 3 – Change impact analysis

3.1. Change impact analysis

Change impact analysis (CIA) is an evaluation of how the project will impact stakeholders, processes, tools, organisation structures, roles and technology.  It also helps to:

  • Provide the project with data on what is changing and what the likely impact will be on project stakeholders
  • Assess the magnitude of change in MDAs to inform the roll out strategy
  • Understand the impact on current roles, structures and processes
  • Gain better leadership understanding of the change in order that they are better able to lead and support their teams through the change
  • Better develop organisational readiness and stakeholder plans in impacted MDAs.

3.1.1. Change impact analysis – the process

1. Capture high-level change impact data

  1. Review project documentation to identify and understand proposed future state.   Documentation could include project profile, scope document and organisational case
  2. Gather and document current state information about stakeholders and impacted MDAs
  3. Plan and facilitate design workshops, stakeholder interviews, focus groups etc., to gain insights into existing workflows, structures and stakeholder perspectives
  4. Document findings from Step 1 to Step 4 through the CIA template.

2. Capture high-level change impact data

Analyse the details of the change impacts to inform a “Change impact analysis,” workshop/meeting/focus group.  The objective of the workshop is to:

  1. Validate the change impacts with key stakeholder representatives, whether through workshop sessions or focus groups
  2. Build on the initial CIA:
    • Change impacts are typically assessed by comparing the current ways of working to the future ways of working – what will be different?
    • A single change can often impact multiple stakeholder groups
    • Address each identified stakeholder group in the stakeholder assessment regardless of the size of the impact
  3. Capture the relevant information to develop a detailed change report, highlighting how the change impacts roles and behaviours, processes, technology and policy and the scale and complexity of those changes.

3. Develop action plans

Develop action plans based on the change impact assessment:

  • Use CIA outputs to determine the key actions for each relevant impacted department, branch, area, function, location etc. across the organisation
  • Create action plans containing a complete list of all key actions, agreed owners and timeframes to effect change as part of readiness planning
  • Develop readiness action plans for each affected programme or project team.
  1. Review the examples.
  2. Use the template as a guide
  3. Develop personas and experience maps

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