Transition Management

Question 1

Transition Management definition

Answer 1

Process of managing the handover of the project outputs commissioned and accepted by the sponsor, culminating in formal closure. Integration of project outputs into BAU

Question 2

What is effective Transition Management?

Answer 2

Coordination of resources, communication strategies, risk mitigation, to ensure seamless transition with minimal disruption to day-to-day activities of an organisation.

Question 3

Transition Management: what will enable a successfuly transition?

Answer 3

1. Managing stakeholder expectations from outset to increase change of outputs being accepted.
2. Identify/engage with end users & project sponsors as key stakeholders throughout project.
3. Align needs with outputs and communicate any digression from these.
4. Setting path for handover & acceptance by familiarising key stakeholders with deliverables from outset.
5. Ensure clear comms to reduce risk of PM misunderstanding requirements or end users of the deliverables.
6. Prepare for new BAU early in project life cycle.

Question 4

Transition Management: What will Change Impact Analysis help determine?

Answer 4

1. Physical or process impacts on the wider system
2. Feelings about the change.
3. Knowledge gaps or skills needs to be addressed.

Question 5

Transition Management: What is Change Impact Analysis?

Answer 5

1. Method of analysing scope and scale of change to new BAU state
2. Help understand organisational impacts on people, performance, processes, systems and culture.
3. Will support planning and comms of change effectively, identifying potential issues and highlighting resources required to do this.

Question 6

Transition Management: Change Impact Analysis; what is the process?

Answer 6

1. Define the change, its purpose, objectives, scope and timeline.
2. Identify organisational areas such as people, processes, systems, culture and individual stakeholders that will be impacted.
3. **Evaluate the level of impact **that the change will have on each area.
4. Develop an action plan to address the impacts of the change, which should be aligned with a common and shared vision, and communicated regularly throughout the project.

Question 7

Transition Management: Progressive Implementation: What is the Knowledge transfer process? Give step by step.

Answer 7

Knowledge transfer = process of project team sharing the team’s information, skills and expertise with the operational users.
1. Skills first launched
2. Experimentation takes place
3. Skills are practised.
4. New ways of work are embedded

Question 8

Transition Management: Progressive Implementation: what to consider during knowledge transfer?

Answer 8

1. Relationship between people responsible for deployment of new capabilities and those responsible for business readiness and adoption in BAU, as part of governance
   2. Sponsor is key champion, to align temporary project team and functional/operational teams in BAU.
2. Extended lifecycle approach would make project team accountable for change management and prevents formation of knowledge boundaries between project teams & operational teams
   4.** Important to provide effective learning and development** from experience so that knowledge can be transferred to nurture future talent and users of project outputs, and promote continuous improvement.

Question 9

Transition Management: Step by step process of Transition Planning?

Answer 9

Transition planning starts at beginning of a project. Process may include:
1. Acceptance of all pertinent documentation.
2. Acceptance certificates signed by** sponsor** – agreement between the 2 parties that states the tasks and the acceptance criteria.
3. **Transfer of responsibility **for the deliverables from project team to sponsor or users.
4. Formal transfer of ownership
5. Providing detailed and thorough guidances/resources is crucial as part of handover process (process maps, project documentation, user manuals, asset registers, H&S files etc.

Question 10

Transition Management: guidance resources to give as part of handover process?

Answer 10

Process maps
Project documentation
Ownership of supplier relationships
Ongoing licensing agreements
User manuals
Operational procedures & maintenance manuals
Asset registers
Design information (calcs, drawings)
Survey information
H&S files
Warranty info

Question 11

Transition Management: What are the key points of engaging stakeholders in transition plan?

Answer 11

1. Early engagement. Important. Stakeholder mapping help identify those impacted in transition process e.g. senior leaders who will drive the transition.
2. Strategic alignment of goals and understanding of the future state. Collaborative planning with stakeholders throughout project, help develop shared vision and common understanding of strategic impact, benefits and financial goals expected.
3. Communicating benefits. Will support common understanding. Designate a benefits champion, to communicate expected benefits with stakeholders and prepare them for transition process.

Question 13

Transition Management: What are considerations what agreeing a transition plan with stakeholders?

Answer 13

1. Agreeing a benefits management plan. Define how benefits will be managed through transition into operational use and R&R involved. Benefits documented in terms of priority, interdependencies, value, timescales and ownership. Techniques such as MoSCoW (Must have, Should have, Could have, Won’t have).
2. Mitigating conflict. User/PM conflict should be considered. May occur if project doesn’t meet acceptance criteria or user expectations.
3. Transfer of risk. Remaining risks at project closure should be communicated to those involved in adoption phase.
4. Life cycles. When engaging with stakeholders, important to consider life cycle and how may impact transition planning.
5. Linear life cycles. Transition planning should be continuous activity through the life cycle. Final desired state or project output is only available during the transition (final) phase of project. Therefore important to monitor progress and alignment of deliverables against expectations through assurance and governance procedures at regular review points.
6. Iterative life cycles. Provide opportunity for PM to build stakeholder buy-in on an ongoing basis. Via collaborative input to a design or ideas from BAU about the implementation schedule.

Question 14

Transition Management: Key outcomes aim to achieve when transitioning a project?

Answer 14

1. Knowledge transfer
2. Continuous improvement
3. Lessons learned
4. Formal acceptance by the business
5. Transfer of responsibility/ownership

Question 15

Transition Management: Consequences of poor transition management?

Answer 15

1. Reduced benefits
2. Delays to timescales
3. Increased costs
4. Increased demand for resources
5. Loss of reputation
6. Disengagement of stakeholders
7. Loss of sponsor confidence
8. Reduced change of project success
9. Misaligned requirements, meaning outputs aren’t fit for purpose