A good colleague posted a question on LinkedIn asking for an opinion of the barriers to change….here is my reply
More often than not Business Process Analysis is pushed to the back of the project agenda, almost an afterthought once the change is being implemented that the business process will have to change around the project goal. This is a sure way to consign the project to either fail or not complete on time purely because you begin to reengineer the business process for all the wrong reasons. Research indicates that 57% of technology lead projects are poorly scoped, and 36% of those have unattainable requirements. Process led projects have a 90% success rate suggesting that BPA is superior for getting process improvement requirements right.
The biggest barrier I’ve found is that BUSINESS process improvement is seen as an IT exercise, it has to involve an architecture element of some description in more mature organisations, must be seen to fit into the SOA environment and goal otherwise it’s not worth the effort. This is such a naive and counterproductive argument. Because of this, the business community feel distanced and alienated, and change is done TO THEM not WITH THEM.
I’ve taken Six Sigma to Green Belt level, and I’m currently undergoing certification for TOGAF, purely so I can learn what they are and why people insist on using them. So far, organisations believe that process improvement MUST involve some sort of dark art of science, when in fact it really encompasses common sense and a desire to question the status quo. Aligning a process to achieve an outcome the Customer is willing to pay for is not rocket science.
Typically, organisations are afraid of change. It goes deeper than “we’ve always done it this way and it works” because there’s an inbred fear of (a) change will make my life worse (b) change will expose me for the lazy sod I am (c) I can’t risk the change if it negatively affects my bottom line when it looks healthy enough thank you very much !
Any combination of those factors will create an instant resistance to a project.
Part of the problem is also really bad business cases being written for projects with a poor ROI realised. This is because you’ve got the wrong person leading the project. Bad business case = no budget
And talking of wrong people, I’m in the current client where a LEAN initiative failed because it was led by an idiot who (a) could not lead (b) did not have the necessary skills to communicate to stakeholders why and the benefits of the initiative.
There, I think I’ve hit the nail on the head…..COMMUNICATION.
It’s not the method, it’s the art of communicating why we need to change, and who we are doing it for (ie the Customer). There’s no one method that can 100% achieve change all the time, but if we break the barriers down for resistance with a clear message (and not a load of dumb motivational posters around the coffee lounge) then I reckon you’re half way there…..
