Managed change is essential in maintaining shared expectations

Often as project managers we focus on managing changes that occur to our projects; however, that is not sufficient. We forget one very important component of managing change and that is managing stakeholder's expectations around change – this is a big component of nearly any project regardless of its size or complexity. When we don't effectively manage people's expectations around change on our projects we risk project failure! The effort we must put forth increases when we begin to work on projects that involve stakeholders from a variety of cultural backgrounds or with virtual or remote teams. Step one in more effectively managing expectations around change is understanding the impact of change on the individuals within the organization. Step two is following a simple process to ensure continued engagement by stakeholders throughout the project – mainly done through regular and frequent, but controlled, communications early on and throughout the project. This paper will provide best practices for managing the people-side of change on projects. When we learn to do this effectively, we increase the success rate of our projects in the eyes of our stakeholders and overall better engage our stakeholders in our projects.