ISD Lecture 4 From systems development to technochange

Question 1

Describe Technochange project

Answer 1

A project that changes an organization based on new uses of IT.

Using IT in ways that can trigger major organizational changes creates high-risk, potentially high-reward, situations that Markus call technochange: technology-driven organizational change. Today these project would be labelled as “transformational” or “disruptive”.

Technochange differs from typical IT projects and typical organizational change programs and requires a different approach.

The classic mistake is to manage a Technochange project as an IT project simply because the organization have failed to understand that it actually was a Technochange project.

Question 2

Describe IT project

Answer 2

A purely technical IT project (such as upgrading a web-server).

Organizations can do many useful and valuable things with IT other than changing organizational activities and performance results.

Technical and economic benefits can be had through simple upgrades and technology substitutions that do not require much effort on the part of business users.

For example upgrading a departmental web server: it all goes well, it happens overnight and if users notice at all they enjoy better response time.

Question 3

Problems of separation

Answer 3

The problems that comes from separating IT development from organizational development.

The root cause for many Technochange problems is too much separation between systems development and implementation – between IT and organization.

For example
We might have one project – e.g. using XP – to deliver a software solution, and another project responsible for implementing the software.
We might have one project done by a vendor delivering software to a customer organization, and have an implementation project in the customer organization being responsible for implementation.

Question 4

A complete design

Answer 4

A design that not only consist of the design of an IT systems but also the design of the changes to the organization.

Question 5

A design that is implementable

Answer 5

A design without misfits towards key organizational characteristics such as the culture, business process and incentives.

The second condition for a successful technochange is a solution that can be, and is, adopted and used.

Question 6

Technochange prototyping

Answer 6

An iterative approach that not only focus on the development of IT, but the organizational changes and benefits as well.

One solution, to address separation problems, is to use Technochange prototyping.

Technochange prototyping is iterative / agile development + organizational changes integrated into one, and the same, process.

The essential characteristic of the Technochange prototyping approach is that each phase (iteration) involves both new IT functionality and related organizational changes, such as redesigned business processes, new performance metrics, and training.

Question 7

Benefits realization

Answer 7

the process of organizing and managing, such that the potential benefits arising from the use of IT are actually realized.

Benefits realization provides another, but similar, way of addressing separation problems and achieving business value.

The paper claims that some of these problems might be solved if organizations use benefits realization defined as: the process of organizing and managing, such that the potential benefits arising from the use of IT are actually realized.

By combining these ideas with the ideas from technochange organizations might be in a better positions to successfully manage IS development and implementation projects.

Question 8

Benefits realization model

Answer 8

Benefits planning
Benefits delivery
Benefits review
Benefits exploitation

Question 9

What is benefits planning

Answer 9

Benefits do not simply emerge, as if by magic, from the introduction of a new technology.

Their realization needs to be carefully planned and managed.

the ability to effectively identify and enumerate the planned outcomes of an IS development project and explicitly stipulate the means by which they will be achieved.

Question 10

What is benefits delivery

Answer 10

Consequently, organizations will only be able to deliver value from their IT investments if they can develop a benefits delivery competence, which the paper define as: ‘

the ability to design and execute the programme of organizational change necessary to realize all of the benefits specified in the benefits realization plan.

Question 11

What is benefits review

Answer 11

The benefits from IT investments will only be realized if they are measured and managed in a systematic way.

Organizations must, therefore, be able to effectively monitor and evaluate the results of their projects, on an on-going basis, to ensure that its ability to deliver business value is incrementally improved.

Consequently, the benefits review competence can be defined as:

the organization’s ability to effectively assess the success of a project in terms of the potential benefits, the delivered benefits, and the identification of the ways and means by which further benefits might be realized.

Question 12

What is benefits explotation

Answer 12

It is often the case that the full potential of a particular application does not become apparent until it is fully operational and the stakeholder community has become experienced in its use.

In this respect, the ability to work with information is particularly crucial.

It is therefore necessary for organizations to develop and apply a benefits exploitation competence, which can be defined as

The adoption of the portfolio of practices required to realize the potential benefits from information, applications and IT services, over their operational life.

Question 13

Problems with Classic IT Project Management

Answer 13

do typically not address the major risk in technochange: that people will not use IT and related work practices. The focus is on project cost, project schedule, and system functionality.

Although the discipline of project management is a very important contributor to successful technochange, it has very little to say about how to manage the risks associated with people’s ‘resistance to change’.

Question 14

Problems with Classic IT Project Management + Organizational Development

Answer 14

to much separation.

Question 15

Bad technochange

Answer 15

Technochange solutions can be bad in two major and related ways:
• They can be incomplete,
• and they can be misaligned with the organization.

Technochange projects should change organizations – but in ways that are implementable.

Question 16

What is The root cause : Separation

Answer 16

Lack of IT understanding in business:

Lack of business understanding in IT:

Bad strategy for collaborative innovation:

Question 17

Problems in the Technochange Life Cycle (partly) caused by Separation

Answer 17

(Chartering, Project, Shakedown, Benefits capture)
There are three major problems:

• Time and distance effects
The agile / iterative systems development models reduce time and distance effects.

• Exported problems
• Technochange failure creating a culture of failure and unintended consequences

Question 18

Characteristics of a good technochange solution

Answer 18

• A complete solution: The first is a technochange solution that is capable of yielding the desired results if it is properly implemented.
• An implementable solution: The second is that the solution is actually used effectively.
• A solution where benefits are actually exploited: The third is that the benefits of the solution are actively captured and exploited.

Question 19

Designing for Implementability (misfits)

Answer 19

Designing technochange solutions for implementability is designing to avoid resistance to change while still accomplishing the organizational change goals.

Therefore, it is important to understand where resistance comes from and what can be done to prevent it.

Task or business process misfit
Misfit for how people work

Culture Misfits
Misfit for the culture in the organization

Incentive misfits
Misfits with reward systems

Question 20

How to deal with misfits

Answer 20

Situations involving task or business process misfits, cultural misfits, or incentive misalignments cannot be successfully dealt with by focusing on technical adequacy such as IT functionality and ease of use.

Question 21

Exploitation of Benefits

Answer 21

The benefits of technochange, unlike those of IT projects, are not automatic. Effort is required to turn potential benefits into measurable organizational results.

Question 22

The Benefits Realization Framework

Answer 22

It is competencies – not activities – but the way they are arranged illustrates the most natural sequence the competencies are used in – that benfits are planned and ultimately exploited.

Question 23

Example for Planning practices (benefits planning)

Answer 23

Understand business strategy:
Clarify the strategic/business drivers for the project and how the project might contribute to the achievement of business strategy.

Understand stakeholders:
Analyze stakeholders’ requirements in terms of benefits that should be delivered by the project.

Identify benefits:
Use the strategic/business drivers and stakeholder requirements to identify the agreed upon benefits to be delivered by the project.

Plan benefits realization:
Develop an overall plan to show the business case (what the benefits are) and how they are going to be realized. Define who is responsible.

Question 24

Example for Delivery practices (Benefits delivery)

Answer 24

Actively lead the business change:
Design, build and lead the project team and governance framework with a focus on realizing benefits. In particular, address responsibility for benefits for the organization/sponsor, benefits for the end user and the effectiveness of the team.

Specify changes to work and organizational design:
The project focuses on the design and delivery of a business solution. This will typically require consideration of business processes, working practices, structures, roles, management framework, performance measures and culture

Benefits-driven training and education:
Ensure education and training are focused on the realization of benefits.

Implement organizational changes:
Implement new and revised business processes, working practices, structures, roles, management framework and performance measures. Take action as required to encourage cultural changes.

Question 25

Example for Review practices (Benefits Review)

Answer 25

Benefits-driven project appraisal :
Use agreed evaluation criteria to undertake a systematic assessment of benefits.

Identify actions to realize further benefits:
Where planned benefits have not been achieved, or opportunities for new benefits have been identified, a benefits’ action plan needs to be established.

Question 26

Example for exploitation practices (Benefits exploitation)

Answer 26

Ensure ownership of continued benefits exploitation:
Establish a clear business role for ongoing ownership of realizing benefits.

Maintain benefits-driven training:
Training is focused around benefits realization and establishing new ways of working.

Evolve working practices:
Continue to evolve working practices post deployment to realize further benefits.

Question 27

How to use the paper by Markus – technochange prototyping - and the competencies and practices from the paper by Ashurst et al?

Answer 27

could be integrated with the systems development models from previous lectures.

Question 28

(How to use) A brief example: benefits planning

Answer 28

Understand business strategy:
Clarify the strategic/business drivers for the project and how the project might contribute to the achievement of business strategy.

Understand stakeholders:
Analyze stakeholders’ requirements in terms of benefits that should be delivered by the project.

Identify benefits:
Use the strategic/business drivers and stakeholder requirements to identify the agreed upon benefits to be delivered by the project.

Plan benefits realization:
Develop an overall plan to show the business case (what the benefits are) and how they are going to be realized. Define who is responsible.

Question 29

Reflections and Relations

Answer 29

The technochange approach focus on complementary investments – such as the theories from the first lecture (e.g. the model by Schryen).

The technochange approach + benefits realization clearly complements the systems development models from lecture 3.

The focus in the systems development models is on functions and features and how to develop them, the focus here is on how to link these functions and features to benefits and business changes.

Both papers from today makes us wiser regarding understanding the “development context” as described in lecture 2.