Five reasons why you need an impact assessment for your change project to succeed

Completing a change impact assessment is a core capability of a change practitioner, yet there is rarely any training or guidance provided on how to do this. Regardless of your project ‘type’ – agile or waterfall, technology implementation or organisational change – an impact assessment is something you need to complete as part of your change role.

Some projects may only need the lighter touch of a high-level impact assessment; many will also need the deluxe version – the detailed impact assessment. So, the ability to understand the approach, how to scale the level of the assessment and how to complete and present the assessment is an essential component of your change toolkit!

Here are five good reasons why you need an impact assessment for your change project to succeed:

1. Identifies hot spots for CHANGE EFFORT across the business – it provides a view of which business units and/or process groups and teams will be impacted the most and least, and can be represented as a heat map to show an enterprise view.
2. Shows the hot spots for OTHER CHANGE PROJECTS – when liaising with other project teams, you can see a view of which business units and/or team are impacted by any ongoing change projects. This will help with resource planning, ability to release SMEs and provide an indication of the capacity to absorb the change.
3. Helps you plan relevant CHANGE INTERVENTIONS – by knowing the nature of the impacts and where they will occur, you have insights to plan your change approach, e.g. training, change champion networks, engagement forums, communications, super users, etc. This is the backbone of your change plan.
4. Drives DISCUSSION WITH STAKEHOLDERS – through visibility of impacts, it opens a discussion with a common understanding of the scale of the change, who else is impacted, along with a common understanding of issues, challenges and interventions needed.
5. Determines overall SCOPE and SCALE of the change – with a view of the scope and scale of the change, you can identify and mitigate any potential risks and issues before they arise.

As you can see, there is a fair bit of work involved in pulling together a meaningful impact assessment. There’s not much around in books or on the internet on how to complete an impact assessment.

Learn how to conduct an impact assessment

Allegra Consulting host regular Impact Assessment breakfast sessions and masterclasses. Join us for a hands-on session where we will cover all the critical elements that should be considered when assessing Business Change Impact. You can view and register for upcoming events here.