Organizational Change Management
A disciplined, repeatable approach that guides individuals, teams, and the organization from the current way of working to a desired future state so planned business benefits are realized.
Key Points
- Follows a cyclical pattern: prepare, implement, and reinforce the change.
- Focuses on people impacts through stakeholder engagement, communication, training, and resistance management.
- Aligns with benefits realization by measuring adoption, usage, and proficiency.
- Relies on executive sponsorship and change agents, integrated with the overall project plan.
Example
A company introduces an agile portfolio management tool. The OCM plan maps stakeholder groups, tailors messages for executives, product owners, and teams, schedules training and coaching sessions, sets adoption KPIs (logins, backlog hygiene, ceremony participation), gathers feedback in retrospectives, and reinforces the change with leader recognition and updated performance objectives.
PMP Example Question
During a transition to a new product lifecycle management system, which activity best represents Organizational Change Management?
- Updating the WBS dictionary to reflect new deliverables
- Creating a stakeholder communication and training plan to drive user adoption
- Submitting a change request to rebaseline the project schedule
- Performing earned value analysis to assess cost performance
Correct Answer: B — Creating a stakeholder communication and training plan to drive user adoption
Explanation: OCM centers on preparing and supporting people through the change via engagement, communication, and training, enabling adoption that leads to the intended business benefits.