Requirements and Tools for Variability Management

Explicit and software-supported Business Process Management has become the core infrastructure of any medium and large organization that has a need to be efficient and effective. The number of processes of a single organization can be very high, furthermore, they might be very similar, be in need of momentary change, or evolve frequently. If the ad-hoc adaptation and customization of processes is currently the dominant way, it clearly is not the best. In fact, providing tools for supporting the explicit management of variation in processes (due to customization or evolution needs) has a profound impact on the overall life-cycle of processes in organizations. Additionally, with the increasing adoption of Service-Oriented Architectures, the infrastructure to support automatic reconfiguration and adaptation of business process is solid. In this paper, after defining variability in business process management, we consider the requirements for explicit variation handling for (service based) business process systems. eGovernment serves as an illustrative example of reuse. In this case study, all local municipalities need to implement the same general legal process while adapting it to the local business practices and IT infrastructure needs. Finally, an evaluation of existing tools for explicit variability management is provided with respect to the requirements identified.

Transcending IT Managemtn Traditions: Transforming from Technology-Oriented to Service-Oriented Management

Large organizations establish departments for managing information technologies (IT) used to support their activities. Historically, this led to a view of the IT department as an important but costly technology-oriented department whose main activity was to keep things running. Recently, best practice has called for service-oriented management of IT departments. This report seeks to report from an organizations attempt to transform from technology- to service-oriented management. To structure the study we use Pettigrew’s framework for understanding organizational change, emphasizing the content, the context, and the process of the transformation. IT management principles of technology- and service-orientation are considered as the content. The context is taken into account from an organization-centric analysis of structures, people, management practices, and technical structures. Finally, a punctuated process model that focused on event sequences of the transformation effort guided the process analysis. We us this contextual approach couched in an interpretive case study to understand the transformation to service-oriented IT management, and by so-doing, offer lessons for how managers can enact this change

A Change Leadership and Management Research Discussion and Analysis on the Religiosity and Spirituality in Philosophical Organizations: The Sustainability Case of Religious Freedom and the Satanic Temple

Organizations and Governments need to critically experience the change management processes to understand and build planned organizational change models. Throughout these processes, religiosity and spirituality play a pivotal role in broadening our scientific understanding about the key philosophies of sustainable change leadership. This study builds onto these arguments while presenting a strong case of religious liberties, especially through the lens of The Satanic Temple (TST) alongside contextualizing the application of change. The manuscript successfully delineated the process of change management and philosophical sustainability by conducting large scale literature reviews and theoretical analyses characterized by micro and macro understandings of a variety of contextual variables and research ideas. Broadly, these included exploring the boundaries of political pressures and human rights, investigating the different perspectives of engines of change in society, bridging the gaps between political and socio-legal viewpoints of religiosity and spirituality, analyzing key roles played by TST in business and society, considering multiple outlooks of effective change communication in organizations and governments, and eventually examining the sustainability dimensions of effective change management

Software Development Process Change Management: Implementation of ASDM

Agile software development methodologies have been receiving a lot of attention in recent times. Although doubts have been cast on the efficacy of these methods for very large projects, some of the techniques and practices they advocate are very appealing and are being seriously considered by many organizations. It is our contention that many of these practices are antithetical to the orthodoxy of prevailing software approaches. In particular, nontrivial reconfigurations of organizational form, management practices, and workflows have to be undergone to successfully integrate agile principles into existing software development practices. This paper draws on the organizational change management literature to argue that the nature of change involved is resonant of the efforts to introduce Business Process Reengineering (BPR) in organizations. The magnitude of the change as well as the implications of migrating to agile methodologies is also presented

Post-Implementation Assessment of Knowledge Management Programs at Government Organizations: The GSA Case. Abstract

This paper examines the causes of failure in post-implementation of knowledge management programs at large government organizations, specifically the case of the Goods and Services Agency (GSA) as knowledge management strategy embodies a long- standing scheme involving not only technology integration but also considerable investment in change management and business process design. The paper further suggests that KM programs in traditional government organizational structures often fail to deliver results in complex, multi-enterprise organizational structures because KM initiatives seek to transform the entire understanding of work processes, which causes workers to avoid utilizing KM systems effectively. Findings in this paper concludes that several elements contributed to the failure of implementation of KM programs at large government organizations, reasons seen as; lack of strategic direction and/or leadership, organizational environment and culture, the silo effect, and technology enabler and disabler, can greatly hinder KM initiatives

Creating business value from big data and business analytics : organizational, managerial and human resource implications

This paper reports on a research project, funded by the EPSRC’s NEMODE (New Economic Models in the Digital Economy, Network+) programme, explores how organizations create value from their increasingly Big Data and the challenges they face in doing so. Three case studies are reported of large organizations with a formal business analytics group and data volumes that can be considered to be ‘big’. The case organizations are MobCo, a mobile telecoms operator, MediaCo, a television broadcaster, and CityTrans, a provider of transport services to a major city. Analysis of the cases is structured around a framework in which data and value creation are mediated by the organization’s business analytics capability. This capability is then studied through a sociotechnical lens of organization/management, process, people, and technology. From the cases twenty key findings are identified. In the area of data and value creation these are: 1. Ensure data quality, 2. Build trust and permissions platforms, 3. Provide adequate anonymization, 4. Share value with data originators, 5. Create value through data partnerships, 6. Create public as well as private value, 7. Monitor and plan for changes in legislation and regulation. In organization and management: 8. Build a corporate analytics strategy, 9. Plan for organizational and cultural change, 10. Build deep domain knowledge, 11. Structure the analytics team carefully, 12. Partner with academic institutions, 13. Create an ethics approval process, 14. Make analytics projects agile, 15. Explore and exploit in analytics projects. In technology: 16. Use visualization as story-telling, 17. Be agnostic about technology while the landscape is uncertain (i.e., maintain a focus on value). In people and tools: 18. Data scientist personal attributes (curious, problem focused), 19. Data scientist as ‘bricoleur’, 20. Data scientist acquisition and retention through challenging work. With regards to what organizations should do if they want to create value from their data the paper further proposes: a model of the analytics eco-system that places the business analytics function in a broad organizational context; and a process model for analytics implementation together with a six-stage maturity model

Process-based Organization Design Model: Theoretical Review and Model Conceptualization

The complexity of today's business world is translated into complexity of the company's organization design (Galbraith, 2002). Organizations are forced to quickly adapt to emerging complexity if they want to survive. The change is addressing all areas of business, especially questioning organizational effectiveness and trying to find optimal solutions for doing business. In accordance with requirements, competitive trends are pushing executives to rethink traditional design configurations. Factors such as increased competition in cost, quality and service, and technical change have forced companies not only to seek out new ways of doing old tasks, but also new ways of organizing either old or new tasks (Cross, 1990). Such focus on the flow of work within organizations, but as well as between them, is emphasizing process orientation as a new management paradigm. Inefficiencies of the two most commonly present structures – functional and divisional, in addition to emerging business trends, place the emphasis on a process-based organization as one of the possible solutions. The process-based organization is lead by the process paradigm, which is focused on the horizontal view of business activities and alignment of organizational systems towards business processes. Regardless of a large interest on business processes, existing organization design theory offers only general guidelines for process-based organizations or more precisely, a process-based organization design model. Consequently, the purpose of the paper is to demystify process-based organization design model. By clearly distinguishing between different levels of process orientation, and by addressing characteristics of the chosen model the paper will lead to better understanding of this way of organizing. Eventually, an operationalized model of process-based organization is developed. Furthermore, the paper elaborates on differences between process-based and other organizational structures and philosophies (e.g. functional, product, matrix, project, team-based). Besides structural elements, which will be in the primary focus, the paper will discuss the alignment of all other important organization design elements for process environment (e.g., management style, reward systems, performance metrics, people practices, organizational culture, etc.). There would be proposed necessary adjustments of organizational elements which should be aligned with the process-based structural solution. In such way, some of the blind spots of process-based organization design model would be revealed, providing practical implications for its implementation and ultimately, offering solution for rising business complexity.organization design, process-based organization, process-based organization design model, business processes

Diagnosing resistance to change in the change management process

This article explains the change management process and resistance to organizational change through examining causes of resistance to change, diagnosing them, and finding the ways to deal with resistance to change. In business environment, the one thing any company can be assured of is change. If an organization experiences change it may also need to implement new business strategies, which can create resistance among employees. Managers need to know in which phase they have to expect unusual situations, problems, and resistance to change. Most successful organizations are those that are able to adjust themselves to new conditions quickly. Preparing for change, managing change through resistance management plan and reinforcing change have been identified in the article as the main phrases of change management process that lead to improve the organization performance. Managing resistance to change is important part for success of any change effort in each company. Dealing with resistance in large part will depend on timely recognition of the real causes of resistance to change and finding the ways to reduce, overcome or eliminate the resistance to change. Developing efficient ways to introduce and implement change can ease the stress the staff feels when change is introduced. Different resistance states, causes of change resistance and forms of change resistance have been emphasized in the change management process. The proposed diagnosing model has been used to identify significant and weighty causes of resistance to change by using the expert survey and ranking causes of resistance to change. The ways to reduce and overcome resistance to change have been explained

Diagnosing resistance to change in the change management process

This article explains the change management process and resistance to organizational change through examining causes of resistance to change, diagnosing them, and finding the ways to deal with resistance to change. In business environment, the one thing any company can be assured of is change. If an organization experiences change it may also need to implement new business strategies, which can create resistance among employees. Managers need to know in which phase they have to expect unusual situations, problems, and resistance to change. Most successful organizations are those that are able to adjust themselves to new conditions quickly. Preparing for change, managing change through resistance management plan and reinforcing change have been identified in the article as the main phrases of change management process that lead to improve the organization performance. Managing resistance to change is important part for success of any change effort in each company. Dealing with resistance in large part will depend on timely recognition of the real causes of resistance to change and finding the ways to reduce, overcome or eliminate the resistance to change. Developing efficient ways to introduce and implement change can ease the stress the staff feels when change is introduced. Different resistance states, causes of change resistance and forms of change resistance have been emphasized in the change management process. The proposed diagnosing model has been used to identify significant and weighty causes of resistance to change by using the expert survey and ranking causes of resistance to change. The ways to reduce and overcome resistance to change have been explained

Steps for successful organizational change management at the enterprise

Особливістю розвитку управлінських процесів є збільшення інтересу фахівців до вирішення конкретних управлінських ситуацій в умовах зміни зовнішнього та внутрішнього середовища організації. Проявляється це перш за все в тому, що зміни на підприємстві вимагають ретельного врахування всіх можливих ситуацій, щоб зробити управлінські рішення науково-обґрунтованими, динамічними для забезпечення збалансованого та стійкого господарського механізму. Підприємство є динамічною системою, воно постійно та безперервно змінюється. Відповідно змінюються і всі його складові: керуюча і керована системи, технології, техніка, професійний, кваліфікаційний та віковий склад працівників, організаційні структури управління, цілі, продукція. Знаючи причини виникнення змін, можна розробити етапи для успішного впровадження та реалізації організаційних змін на підприємстві. Розроблення технології управління організаційними змінами на підприємстві через планування цих змін, організування колективів працівників та окремих виконавців, мотивування працівників до змін, контролювання результатів організаційних змін та регулювання відхилень і збоїв, виявлених у процесі реалізації організаційних змін є основою успішного управління змінами на підприємстві.Enterprise change management is a concept and a process for deploying change management across an organization. It goes beyond the project level and focuses on an overall organizational approach to managing change. Organizations have standard processes and tools for project management, talent management and continuous improvement. Many have recognized the need for the same type of disciplined processes for change management. Organizations are facing large and more frequent changes under current economic climate. A changing marketplace, workforce and technological advancements have created an environment where change is becoming “business as usual”. In this environment, organizations are beginning to recognize the importance of building the competency to rapid and successful change. As organizations are transformed by system implementations and organizational redesigns, the emergence of new processes, policies, systems and cultures typically present unique and sometimes daunting challenges to an organization. Often organizations that do not adapt well to these changes compromise their planned return on investment due to: confusion resulting from vague new roles and responsibilities, imbalanced workload across the organization, resistance to change by stakeholders, managers and employees, lack of confidence in leadership, inability to achieve cost reduction or actual cost increases based on the above. The following four steps to solve the above problems in change management are recommended in the article: 1) organizational change planning; 2) organization of the team to implement organizational change; 3) team motivation; 4) organizational change control and regulation. The internal causes of change (the need for change in the management structure, obsolescence of products, equipment and technology, decrease in the enterprise performance) and external causes of change (economic conditions and government regulation, change in laws and other regulators, level of competition, purchasing power of consumers) are described in the article. Therefore, the main aim of the article is developing the steps for successful organizational change management at the enterprise