Technology change and release management

David Lees at Basis Technologies explores a CIO blind spot

A Chief Information Officer’s (CIOs) traditional role as an IT administrator has been drastically reshaped into a strategic enabler in the face of today’s rapidly evolving change landscape. Their role now encompasses more than just managing IT infrastructure. They are expected to drive innovation and transformation, making them integral to technical change and release management strategies within complex IT infrastructures.

Technical change management helps maintain operational stability, aligns technological innovations with business goals, and allows companies to quickly adapt to market changes, ensuring not only their growth, but their very survival. The focus is on the planning, coordination, and execution of changes to ensure smooth transitions and minimise disruptions. 

When 75% of IT projects fall short of goals, the CIO’s role becomes ever more important to ensure not only operational consistency, but excellence. As the business landscape experiences rapid market shifts and technological advancements, the implementation of effective change management, especially within SAP systems which are used by 98% of global enterprises, becomes a necessity rather than a choice. 

As such, it’s paramount for the CIO to be at the heart of strategic decisions, facilitating business growth and innovation by driving agility. The ultimate goal is to provide a secure foundation for transformation initiatives and ensuring all changes align with broader business objectives.

Linking technological strategy and business objectives

The cornerstone of effective technical change and release management is to create a lucid vision that resonates across the entire business. 

Achieving complete harmony between the technology strategy and broader business objectives is pivotal. The two sides of an organisation, which once worked in siloes, have since converged due to the digital-driven nature of contemporary business; with the CIO situated at the centre. 

A critical aspect of this alignment involves identifying and investing in the right technologies that ultimately support the wider business goals. It requires CIOs to orchestrate the complex interplay between marrying the right people and their talents with an innovation mindset.

The strategy: achieve agility and innovation 

Agility has become the CIO’s new mantra – one that could not ring truer when it comes to technical change management. 

However, agility alone is insufficient. CIOs must also encourage a culture of experimentation and innovation, acting as catalysts for exploring and testing new ideas, pushing boundaries within their organisations.

This culture of innovation plays a crucial role in effective change management. It involves embedding a process of continuous exploration, which may include leveraging emerging technologies, testing unconventional ideas, or even pivoting business models. Failures are accepted as part of the process, with each misstep serving as a valuable lesson to refine future initiatives.

Through this relentless pursuit of innovation and improvement, organisations can unlock the full potential of digital technology for transformation. Effective change management allows for the smooth integration of new technologies into existing processes, thereby creating new and greater value for customers and maintaining a competitive edge.

In essence, the role of CIOs has evolved beyond just technology leadership. Experimenters at heart, they are now the driving force behind technical change management, setting the agenda in the boardroom as champions of agility and innovation.

The process: what should CIOs be doing?

As we’ve established, CIOs play a crucial role in ensuring effective technical change and release management within their organisations. To achieve this, they should focus on three key areas: effective planning and risk assessment, rigorous testing and quality assurance, and selecting the right tooling.

In terms of planning and risk assessment, CIOs should encourage their teams to thoroughly assess the potential risks associated with each change, which includes identifying dependencies and potential conflicts.

By doing so, organisations create a comprehensive plan that includes clear timelines, allocated resources, and contingency measures. This proactive approach enables them to anticipate and address potential issues before they escalate.

Rigorous testing and quality assurance are vital to ensuring the stability and reliability of changes or releases. It is essential to use testing methodologies that cover various aspects, such as functional, performance, security, and compatibility testing.

Additionally, CIOs should ensure that a rollback plan is in place to revert to the previous state if necessary. This approach allows teams to quickly respond to any critical issues that arise during testing or after deployment, minimising the impact on operations.

Selecting the right tooling is make or break. CIOs should identify tools that provide automation capabilities for change deployment, release coordination, and orchestration. Integration within a toolchain is also essential for seamless workflow management.

The right tools should offer comprehensive tracking and reporting features, enabling effective monitoring of changes, as well as facilitating collaboration and communication among team members.

Lastly, governance features, such as access controls, change approval workflows, and audit trails, should be considered to ensure compliance and accountability throughout the change and release management process.

Guiding change and the future of business success

The journey of technical change and release management for today’s businesses requires a pioneer, and CIOs are well-suited to steer this voyage, guiding their organisations through the uncharted waters of digital transformation. With their evolving roles, CIOs take the helm in driving agility and innovation, fostering collaboration, and effectively measuring success.

Mastering technical change management is not just about adopting new technologies or processes, but about effectively managing the lifecycle of change and how it impacts the wider business. This is where the CIO’s role becomes pivotal, ensuring that technological changes within vital systems like SAP, happen in a structured, controlled manner, minimising risk and maximising operational effectiveness.

Overall, it’s about creating a culture that embraces change and facilitates continuous learning and improvement. 

In this ever-changing business landscape, CIOs are more than technology leaders. They are the champions of change, paving the way for future business success.

David Lees is CTO at Basis Technologies

Main image courtesy of iStockPhoto.com