4. Develop the change strategy
What is it?
This process helps to answer the key change questions – ‘what are our reasons for changing?’, ‘what do we want to achieve?’, and ‘how will we get there?’
The key outputs from this process are the Business Case for change and the Change Management Strategy
Why do it?
This process will:
- Compile a concrete business case describing the financial and non-financial benefits of the change
- Assess the best value for money approach to delivering the desired outcomes
- Describe the approach to managing change for this initiative
When to do it?
This process will begin early in the diagnose phase. The Strategic Outline Case (stage 1 in the three step Better Business Cases approach) is the key deliverable from the Diagnose phase of the change framework. Approval of the Strategic Outline Case is the gateway decision to the next phase – Design. The Outline Business Case is the key deliverable from the Design phase of the change framework and the Full Business Case is the final deliverable from the Develop phase – before moving to implement the agreed changes (Link to BBC guidance on SDU webpages)
Inputs
Future State Definition
Change Impact Assessment
Outputs
How to do it?
The Change Strategy is the key guiding document for planning and implementing the change initiative. It brings together:
- The context for change (summarising the key drivers and case for change)
- A description of the change (the recommended approach to achieving the desired change outcomes and high level roadmap)
- The benefits of the proposed change initiative
- The impact of the change (from the change impact heat map)
- The approach to change for this initiative (the tailored change charter)
- The change governance
- Change risks and risk management plan
The approach to change is developed from the generic change blueprint. The Change Sponsor and Steering Group should agree the change charter for this initiative and any guiding principles that will be applied. For example, your initiative may have a strong focus on student activities so one guiding principle for the ‘ Smart Engagement and Communications’ element would be to get formal sign-off of key documents from a representative student group; or in a change that involved significant new ways of working you could agree that a pilot or trial run would be a key activity to be included in the ‘ Supportive Organisation and Culture’ element.
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The Change Strategy template can be found here |
The University uses the Treasury ‘Better Business Cases’ approach to developing business cases for investment in change [include link to SDU BBC guidance]. This approach uses a 5 case model to identify and document all the relevant information to help support a robust investment proposal.
The Strategic Case provides the compelling case for change and will use the information gathered in the ‘Define Future State’ process. This documents the drivers for change, the vision for the future, the business needs (‘to be’) and the high level steps to achieve the vision – the roadmap.
The Economic Case is an options appraisal of the different ways the vision could be achieved and looks at the relative costs, benefits and risks involved in each option to identify the best value for money approach.
The Commercial Case is only required if a new system or service is being procured as it considers the commercial viability of the change proposal.
The Financial Case provides the proposed full-life cost of the change initiative.
The Management Case documents how the change initiative will be delivered – this is the Change Strategy and Change Management Plan.
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The Business Case Guidance will help to complete the Business Case Template. There is also a ‘Better Business Cases’ overview training course available to book on Trent |