Abstract:
"There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order"
Machiavelli, 1513 (Thompson, 1992)
The concept of change management is not new. Many organisations employ different methods and methodologies to manage changes: from widespread organisational changes to more focused project changes. Several leading books and publications make the case for why and how to manage change. In looking at my own organisation over the past 18 years it has been apparent that while it is agreed that change must be managed and change management experts are employed, there does not exist a standard methodology for measuring the success of the methods employed. For people and organisational changes there are defined metrics which can be used such as lost days, employee turnover, and levels of employee satisfaction. For projects there are service level indicators that can be used such as support call volume. However none of these actually measure the success of the change methods employed in an effort to continuously improve them. In an effort to address this issue, this thesis examines the area of change management using a specific case study. The goal is to develop a set of metrics which can be applied to the Transition Change Management (TCM) efforts within a project in order to empirically measure the success of the change management methods employed.
