Are there learned best practices you can share for companies transitioning from legacy systems to new technology stacks?
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As an organizational change management consultant, I will tell you that having a strong OCM lead in place is critical. There is so much change for employees in these situations, and it is critical to have a trusted partner to assess change readiness and ready people for change. My clients are typically in this situation where they haven't implemented a new system in years plus, they are trying to transform the business at the same time. Employees experience a tremendous amount of change fatigue in these situations.
As most of the time, there transitions will result in a massive project:
- Have the right governance
- Keep the decision making as close to the project as possible (no board approval for everything)
- Split the run from the build (isolate the project as much as possible from the daily operations)
- Try to minimize the impact on the end-users (UI/UX could help saving you!)
- Stay realistic and accept that it won't be perfect on day 1 (find your acceptance level)
- Surround yourself with people who've done it elsewhere (a few 'champions' in the core team)
That's what I've heard from others.
At a high level: preparedness to change, understand your cost drivers, understand you delay risk, communicate with the business.
- Don't underestimate the changes required to process, people and technology.
- Test out your ideas before committing to a whole project.
- Make sure you have leaders and visionaries for where you are trying to go.
- Fail fast when something isn't working, and make sure the team doesn't get stuck.
- Be sure to agree on the outcomes of stages, not just the work that has to happen.
- Be open about your risks that cause delays.
- Communicate your challenges to the business, nobody likes a bill they weren't expecting.
Avoid situation, when overall new solution is controlled by one or very narrow group of people. The situation changes over time and those being your heros and huge suport today may be your huge danger in the future.