Having determined that we believe we have a reasonably healthy project management culture within the Tasmanian Government, how can we use this to support organisational change? We do this by building it into our project management methodology and supporting project managers and steering committees to clearly define the nature and extent of the changes the projects are aiming to bring about. We try to give them the tools and networks to support their efforts to do so.

We define project management in the Guidelines as ‘a formalised and structured method of managing changes in a rigorous manner. The application of any project management methodology requires an appropriate consideration of the corporate and business culture that forms a particular project’s environment’. ^[3]

One of the key fundamentals of our approach is that all projects bring about change. Our approach in planning and scoping projects is to begin with the fundamental question of ‘why is the initiative being undertaken?’ and ‘what are the planned outcomes/benefits the project aims to achieve?’. Some of these are then defined as ‘measurable’ and we term these ‘Target Outcomes’. We argue that every project, no matter what the size, should be able to prove at the end that they have achieved the planned business benefits/outcomes.

Our response to a recent Cross Jurisdictional CIO committee survey requesting information in relation to current/best practice associated with ICT project management and benefits realisation, stated that:

In recent times, the Tasmanian Government has chosen to manage change increasingly through the use of project management principles and practices. There are currently no cross-agency projects being undertaken in Government that do not employ the TGPMF to some degree.

Organisational Change Management (OCM) can be defined as the management of realigning an Agency/organisation to meet the changing demands of its business environment, including improving service delivery and capitalising on business opportunities, underpinned by business process improvement and technologies. It includes the management of changes to the organisational culture, business processes, physical environment, job design/ responsibilities, staff skills/knowledge and policies/procedures. Projects are used as the vehicle for implementing changes to an Agency/organisation. Projects are all about transformation and are intended to create change of one kind or another, no matter how small or large. ^[4]

While organisational changes are often monitored during project implementation, in the past not enough attention was paid to defining the organisational changes required to ensure project outputs are effectively managed after project closure and defining who is responsible for making this happen. For the changes to be effective and the full benefits achieved on an ongoing basis, planning for business/organisational change, at the beginning, during and after the project, is essential.

Very few projects are carried out in isolation in an agency, organisation or business unit. Overall strategic direction for the management of change within the agency/organisation may have been established already, and articulated in relevant corporate/strategic plans or similar documents. This should be considered in the light of the overall organisational approach and the extent to which the project is involved in bringing about change. We contend that project outcomes/benefits cannot be fully realised without the necessary organisational changes being made.

Owens and Owens state that organisational change management should focus on both tangible and intangible changes. The tangible being the physical organisational changes required and the intangible being the people risks to the project, i.e. cultural changes, buy-in and acceptance from stakeholders etc. While Owens and Owens suggest that it is the Project Manager who takes responsibility for this, we argue that it is the collective responsibility of the Project Manager, Project Sponsor, Steering Committee and Project Business Owners. ^[5]

James Carlopio (2003) states that, for a project to be successful, organisational change management needs to be integrated into project management, not just a bolt on. ^[6] In the TGPMF we have named Organisational Change Management/Outcome Realisation as one of the eleven Key Elements of project management.

There is a growing focus on being able to measure and secure benefits. We support the Outcome/Benefits Realisation planning approach where we argue that no project should be closed until it is very clearly documented as to whom the project outputs will be delivered, what business process changes will be needed to manage the outputs and who will be held accountable for Outcome/Benefits Realisation on an ongoing basis. We suggest that this planning commence with project initiation so that before the project commences there is at least an understanding of who the Business Owners for the project outputs will be on project closure.

The purpose of Outcome/Benefits Realisation planning, and its documentation, is to ensure that:

Outcome/Benefits Realisation planning, we suggest, is all about gaining commitment from the Business Owner(s) to manage and maintain the outputs in a quality manner, and to ensure that reporting of progress against the realisation of the Target Outcomes occurs at agreed intervals after the project closes. In order to manage the project outputs in a quality manner, Business Owners must take responsibility for implementing the necessary organisational changes.

We advise that as part of the initiation phase of a project, the Business Owner(s) for each of the high-level outputs from the project should be identified and included within the governance structures. It is the Business Owner(s) who will accept responsibility for the ongoing management of the project outputs once delivered, the realisation of the Target Outcomes from the use of those outputs and subsequent flow of benefits to the agency/organisation and its customers.

Organisational change management programs are increasingly delivered by using a project management methodology with the aim of fully achieving the benefits of the project. Benefits cannot be fully achieved if the required organisational changes have not taken place. These include process change, technology change and most importantly, people change.