Nueronic Consulting

Managing change is a very tricky concept. Resistance to change can critically affect the failure or success of newly implemented software systems.
People do not like change. Companies however have to understand that change at is vital for a company’s survival and should promote change throughout the ranks of the organization. This can be achieved by following the following:
1. At all times involve and agree support from people within system (system = environment, processes, culture, relationships, behaviours, etc., whether personal or organisational).
2. Understand where the organisation is at the moment.
3. Understand where you want to be, when, why, and what the measures will be for having got there.
4. Increase urgency - inspire people to move, make objectives real and relevant.
5. Build the guiding team - get the right people in place with the right emotional commitment, and the right mix of skills and levels.
6. Get the vision right - get the team to establish a simple vision and strategy focus on emotional and creative aspects necessary to drive service and efficiency.
7. Communicate for buy-in - Involve as many people as possible, communicate the essentials, simply, and to appeal and respond to people’s needs. De-clutter communications - make technology work for you rather than against.
8. Empower action - Remove obstacles, enable constructive feedback and lots of support from leaders - reward and recognise progress and achievements.
9. Create short-term wins - Set aims that are easy to achieve - in bite-size chunks. Manageable numbers of initiatives. Finish current stages before starting new ones.
10. Don’t let up - Foster and encourage determination and persistence - ongoing change - encourage ongoing progress reporting - highlight achieved and future milestones.
11. Make change stick - Reinforce the value of successful change via recruitment, promotion, and new change leaders. Weave change into culture

References
1. Business Balls,http://www.businessballs.com/changemanagement.htm)
2. John P Kotter (1995,2002)

Rich pictures were particularly developed as part of Peter Checkland’s Soft Systems Methodology for gathering information about complex situations.
Rich pictures can be used as a business analysis and brainstorming technique to encapsulate information, needs, systems, actors, concerns, requirements that are directly and indirectly related to a business, or to a business system.
The most important strength of rich pictures is that it can depict relationships and flow of information between other systems, requirements and individuals.

I find Rich pictures (RP’s) very helpful and always incorporate them during requirements workshops or during the business analysis phase. RP‘s help business analysts to identify a problem, or a business situation, identify the variables around the business situation and visualise how a potential system can help to solve that problem. Moreover a Rich Picture, helps to establish where a potential system will “sit” within a number of other subsystems and generally in the business and the overall order of things in the world.

From a clients perspective- it helps to understand the problem, it helps to identify needs and business requirements, it aids in visualising what the problem is, and how a possible solution can affect the business and all the people and other objects within the business.

In summary Rich Picture is the conceptual graphical expression of the problem, the actors, the need for change, the information and activities needed to be done and the limitations of a desired solution. The purpose of drawing a rich picture (there is no standard or set way of drawing a rich picture) is to get a better understanding of all the factors associated with the problem.
This is a sample of a rich picture I drew during a business analysis phase. For confidentiality reasons I am posting the first draft version-but I am sure you will get the “picture”:

Have you found Rich Pictures helpful? Please feel fre to comment.