Manage progress, obstacles, and planning during the implement phase

It's during the Implement phase that the implementation team and the planning are first put to the test. From a change management perspective, in addition to managing expectations, we should quantify how the sentiment of our stakeholders develops.

Monitor stakeholder sentiment

This activity should be applied in proportion to the size, risks, and complexity of the project. A common effective way for change managers to monitor sentiment is through various web-based or app-based surveys. The sentiments can be anonymized or not.

The ebb and flow of daily project execution can cause sudden changes in sentiment. However, sentiment can also change because of misconceptions, misalignment, or unexpected resistance among project stakeholders.

If the project team's sentiment drops on larger and longer projects, the result can be attrition and burn-out. It's important for the change manager to use the toolset that they have at hand. They must adapt the communication plans, sponsor roadmap, and resistance management plan to reflect such changes, and they must resolve these situations in coordination with project management.

Monitor risk areas and remove obstacles

Even on smaller implementation projects, particular care should be taken to keep an eye on the processes that we identified as risk areas during the Initiate phase. The progress in these areas should be carefully measured according to the project plan.

Learn more in Implement rewards and corrective actions.

Create a training plan

As we discuss in the article Training strategy, training is a required part of most projects and is critical for helping people build the knowledge and ability that they need to work with new processes and apps. The training plan identifies the scope, intended audience, and timeframe that training should be planned for. It's important for the change manager to ensure that the training plan is sequenced in a way that allows awareness and interest in the implementation project to build up in the audience before they start training activities.

A common aspect that tends to be overlooked is cloud-focused training for IT administrators. Because implementation of Dynamics 365 cloud applications might involve a significant change for IT teams, it's important to plan training that keeps their persona in mind. They might require training not only in Dynamics 365 administrative activities but also in general cloud concepts.

Shadowing is a commonly used approach for training in mature implementation teams. The consultant from the implementing partner works with the stakeholder user to facilitate hands-on learning and make it easier for the stakeholder to become comfortable with the new process.

Train-the-trainer is another common approach for training planning. Here, the business and IT stakeholders learn the new processes and solution as superusers. They then create training content and actually conduct the training as we get closer to go-live.

The change manager can ensure the effectiveness of both approaches by creating awareness of dos and don'ts, and by having candid discussions about the fact that even great business stakeholders sometimes need training to become great trainers.

The change manager should also ensure that the high-risk process and user group mapping are considered. In this way, they can determine which people and processes the trainers and content authors should pay special attention to when they plan for training.

Finally, it's important for the change manager to ensure that all affected user groups receive the necessary training. These user groups include external resources or business partners that might interact with the system, such as users of customer or vendor self-service portals.

• Initiate
• Implement
• Prepare
• Operate

The Prepare phase is a critical phase for the project. For the change manager, it's a busy time, because we are performing many activities that we planned for during the previous phases.

Next steps

• Review the change management overview.
• Understand where to get started by assessing business process change.
• Learn about the importance of project goals and readiness.
• Find ways to affect change by understanding the project organization.
• Learn ways to do proper assessment and solution overview.
• Incorporate change management activities into the project plan.
• Understand the importance of setting the ground rules.
• Review key challenges for managing expectations.
• Understand how change management can affect testing of the solution.
• Understand timing and focus in getting ready to deploy.
• Set the stage for proper transition and handover.
• Review the change management checklist.
• Read the case study to understand the positive impact of proper change management practice.