manage change
Change takes many forms. The implementation of a new system, reengineering of end-to-end business processes, departmental reorganization and the creation of a new business unit all require scarce resources to be allocated and managed to the satisfaction of corporate objectives. Whether narrow or broad in scope, addressing impacts on the organization and its culture and on people and their roles is accomplished in tandem with the implementation of new assets.
the enterprise is a complex system
No one in industry would consider conceptualizing, designing and building a complex product like an airliner or a commercial skyscraper without a serious approach and solid disciplines. Yet, significant changes are made to large enterprises every day with far less. How many times has the implementation of an enterprise system been attempted with the help of an approach that focuses on the technology, leaving the business out in the cold? Do we continue to invest in solutions without agreed-to outcomes? Or, a realistic payback?
improve capability
Whether the end-product is a new system, reengineered business process or new business unit the process is similar. Requirements are elicited and the product is defined, engineered, specified, built and implemented. Whether the scope is one system or many, a department or a major chunk of the enterprise, the basic approach is the same.
an integrating framework for managing change is required
While change management approaches, business process reengineering discipline, project management techniques, system development life cycles and others abound, at times these may leave significant gaps in the overall problem space. Often the approaches are not applied properly, perhaps because they are not well understood or too complex and are dismissed altogether. Too often it's because the different approaches don't work together very well.
roadmap
Roadmaps connect what is done (projects) what is changed (assets), internal and external constraints (assumptions, strategies, concepts) and what is desired (positive changes in value).
bringing about change is complex, the process doesn't need to be
The objective enterprise proposes simple but complete constructs that integrate business with technology and work with product. Simplicity is a requirement, because complex approaches have historically been rejected on a grand scale. Completeness is a requirement, because all involved, whether technical or not, manager or doer, have a role to play.
blueprint
Blueprints portray the business, its processes and participating human, financial, material and computing assets in their current and future state.
work must be tightly coupled with the product to be delivered
Every endeavor, large or small, complex or simple, has two preoccupations - the work itself, and the tangible result of that work. If the work is sufficiently small and the product sufficiently simple, the work can be accomplished by one individual or a small team without much in the way of planning or design. Scale and complexity quickly reach a point where some form of roadmap and blueprint is required. The more people that are added to the mix, the greater the need for a common vocabulary and approach.
The manage change process and the improve capability process give equal and concurrent attention to the work required and the product desired. To do this, the processes exploit two principle mechanisms: active roadmaps and blueprints.
Roadmaps and blueprints integrate activity and solution, business and technology. The term active emphasizes the need to adjust what are essentially models of your business to reflect current realities.
objective enterprise framework "trifold"
The following illustrations are renderings of the front and back of the objective enterprise trifold.