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Manage changes during transition and handover

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During the Prepare phase of an implementation project, the organization transitions from a state of progression to a state of continuously supporting the business in using the solution. The article Transition to support discusses this transition in depth. From a change management perspective, it's the time to make sure that the processes, technology, and people are all accounted for after the activities that lead through cutover and go-live are set in motion.

Ensure knowledge transfer to the support organization

In most transformational business application projects that follow Success by Design, the organization works with an implementing partner or systems integrator (SI) who brings their experience with such projects and the skill set that is needed for the implementation. We recommend that the necessary skill set and resource requirements are identified and acquired or developed throughout the implementation project.

As the change manager, make sure that all activities, decisions, and changes that occur throughout the implementation project are properly documented. They must be accounted for in the body of knowledge that is transferred from the implementing partner and implementation team to the support organization.

Train the support organization

The change manager should prepare the training plan with the idea that most, if not all, critical activities that the partner delivers fall into the support organization's hands at some point. The people who make up the support organization might be anchored to the business or to IT operations, they might be outsourced, or they might follow other models. Regardless, the training plan should include proper transition and knowledge transfer to ensure that they are comfortable both pre-go-line and post-go-live.

Include training in critical IT support procedures, such as rollback, failover, and disaster recovery (DR) backup and restore actions. Specifically, for Dynamics 365 apps, they must understand how to manage these activities from the Azure portal and the Microsoft 365 administrative portal.

Support all Prepare phase activities

There is one thing that can cause bottlenecks during the Prepare phase: when support needs aren't met throughout user acceptance testing (UAT) and performance testing, environment setup, and cutover activities.

Important

Although these activities are familiar to the implementing partner, the business and IT stakeholders might experience only a few transformational business application projects during their career.

The change manager can ensure that the support organization ramps up in time to support these activities. In this way, you reduce distraction for the people who are critical for environment configuration, setup, data migration, or the upgrade processes, because they don't also have to support user testing and training activities in parallel. In fact, there are several benefits of having the support organization provide support from before the cutover through go-live. Not only does this approach give the support organization a great learning experience, but it also helps the implementing organization and its individuals feel comfortable about overall readiness.

  • Initiate
  • Implement
  • Prepare
  • Operate

The change management activities don't end at go-live. On the contrary, now that the solution is live, the change manager should focus on reinforcing the changes that were introduced with the solution.

Reinforcing change

These post-go-live activities are critical but often overlooked. They help you create and run action plans to make sure that the changes that the business applications bring are sustained.

Measure adoption and use

During this phase, project and change management teams should carry out the planned measures and mechanisms to close the feedback loop. They should measure how well the change is taking hold, gauge user adoption, identify alignment with key performance indicators (KPIs), and correct gaps. The tools for measuring the success of a change initiative can include the following list:

  • Interviews
  • Surveys
  • Direct measurement of user adoption, such as sign-ins and the number of transactions
  • Other more complex measures, such as inventory or forecast accuracy

Most Dynamics 365 apps have in-app feedback mechanisms. A key task for the change manager is to make sure that this feedback loop is used, and that business users are properly educated about the survey questionnaires that are embedded in the apps.

Note

Microsoft uses this user feedback to further enhance the apps in future releases.

Implement rewards and corrective actions

When gaps or challenges are detected that are related to the adoption of systems and processes by some individuals, the mitigating element can be in the form of rewards and corrective actions. This approach should be planned from the start of the project, and great care should be taken to maintain a positive and transparent dynamic around the implementation.

There are direct and indirect ways to implement rewards in the context of change. The rewards can take the form of cash or token awards, or praise and accolades. You can even use gamification. The approach that works best depends on the individual organization and, sometimes, even the individual person. You can also use rewards both in a highly public way as a bonus and behind the scenes as a persuasion tool. Use rewards to win over individuals who resist a change, or use them to highlight and celebrate the people who adopted the new system or processes.

Corrective actions are used to avoid resistance and to stop counterproductive behavior that could put adoption of the new system or processes in jeopardy.

When you apply them correctly, rewards and corrective actions are powerful tools to direct the behavior of individuals in the organization during and after the implementation.

Break down common technology barriers

Some of the obvious changes are related to the cloud transition itself. Cloud service models and the web-based and mobile-based nature of Dynamics 365 apps provide a unique way of managing, monitoring, and maintaining technology assets. We discuss the benefits of a business value–driven and data-driven organization, adoption of a platform mindset, security, and scalability in the article Implementing cloud solutions.

A significant barrier to the adoption of cloud technology can be the perception of risks by IT/Technology teams. They are transitioning from a legacy, highly customized, slow-changing systems landscape to a workload-driven, cloud-based business system. There are undeniably high-impact changes to technology as a result of this software as a service (SaaS) model. Dynamics 365 apps provide small, incremental updates on a scheduled cadence multiple times per year. This update cycle is a shift from the typical legacy landscape, where system upgrades are major projects that occur years apart.

In the legacy world, there is often a large on-premises infrastructure that might be managed in-house. In addition, there is often deeply specialized knowledge of custom functions, complex integrations, and so on. You should consider and appropriately address the implications of these multiple changes. Highlight their benefits, so that these teams support and drive the transition.

In addition to the changes to technology itself, we should consider the changes to the skill set inside and outside the organization, and the need for enhanced skills that are essential for cloud implementations. Microsoft Power Platform supports a larger degree of citizen development, and low-code and no-code options. Taking full advantage of those benefits might require new ways of thinking about strategies around security, centralization, and streamlining. It might also require new dimensions of coordination across business units and departments.

The change manager should invest time and effort into learning the related concepts, so that they understand how to break down related barriers. The concepts are described in depth in the articles Application lifecycle management and Service the solution.

Break down people and process barriers

It's important for the change manager to help the organization approach the post-go-live landscape for individuals with a sense of empathy.

In Dynamics 365 apps, many processes are defined in the system out of the box, or they are configurable to fit a wide variety of industries. These out-of-box (OOB) processes are typically defined according to industry best practices and might differ from what the organization did before. To achieve the desired business goals and outcomes, it's often in the organization's best interest to use the standard best practices. This approach is healthier than re-creating the organization's legacy processes, which were originally developed for a past business reality, because of a legacy system, or because of other limitations. The organization must adopt new practices and processes. Inevitably, it must also abandon the old ways that people were used to and comfortable with.

A key point for change managers is the fact that changes to processes inevitably mean that some users will feel better off after the change, but others won't. The change manager must ensure that key stakeholders are equipped with an explanation of the broader gains and benefits for the company. Learn more in Implement Cloud Solutions. Here are just some examples of the many gains and benefits for Dynamics 365 online:

  • Ubiquitous access
  • Centralized data
  • Overall processes efficiency
  • A platform that supports automation of tedious tasks
  • High innovation pace
  • Citizen developer models

Take the chance out of change

Change is difficult. We encourage you to take the necessary steps to reduce, to the degree that you can, the chance or variability that is associated with change. Project management and methodologies contribute by providing a framework that includes milestones, deliverables, activities, and resources over the lifecycle of the implementation project. However, unless we proactively support and guide people through the changes that our projects bring, the likelihood that they will embrace change is left to chance. Change management and change managers can help by providing employees with the preparation, support, and skills that they need to succeed.

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