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Get organizations ready after user acceptance testing

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After user acceptance testing (UAT) is completed, several activities kick in. These activities are all about getting the organizations ready for the upcoming changes. The training and communications plans are carried out, and in some cases, we do a mandatory go-live review with Microsoft.

Measure users' training experience

The article Training strategy discusses in depth how to establish a training plan by considering 12 important elements. For the change manager, one of these elements stands out: the training experience of the users. This element is important for the successful adoption of new processes and systems, and the change manager should follow it closely.

Depending on the training delivery models (self-paced interactive training, training guides, or in-person training), the change manager should establish a feedback loop in addition to validating training success as described in that article. This feedback loop can be achieved through surveys, interviews, or direct observation of training sessions.

The change manager should look out for the sentiment of the users who are being trained and also the outcome of the training. The practitioner should evaluate how the users are reacting to the new processes. In this way, they can not only make sure that areas of risk have been properly mitigated but also identify other risk areas that might have been overlooked.

Adapt to users' training experience

If the change manager identifies elements of resistance, hesitation to adopt, or skill issues within a process or user group, they must take action. Start by analyzing the issue, and then, as needed, adapt the training model to ensure a training experience that matches the level of risk.

If the resistance or issues are severe, the process might have to be redesigned, the responsibility might have to be transferred to another user group, or a larger skill set might have to be acquired.

Pay attention to high-risk user groups/processes

The user group process documents that are described at the beginning of this article should be the subject of special interest. For these user groups, it might be worth the effort to have a supervisor or similar trusted persona perform in-person, hands-on training. For these processes or user groups, change management methods for encouragement, reinforcement, and empowerment might be necessary.

It's important to recognize that not everyone views all changes as opportunities. Skepticism is a natural reaction when changes are ahead, such as when leadership is talking about cost reduction, process automation, and efficiency optimization. Skepticism is especially likely if the larger context about why the changes are in everyone's best interest isn't clearly communicated. People might wonder, "Will there be any impact on my daily work? Will my current skills still be needed?" Many people are comfortable in their current space. The concept of change can itself be scary, especially if there are lots of unanswered questions.

It's also important to understand that failure to address these stakeholder and user concerns, whether at the department, team, or individual level, can have severe consequences. In the worst case, people ignore or even actively resist the objective of the implementation project. That rejection affects the implementation and, ultimately, the adoption of the system or its processes.

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