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MAKING CHANGES
SECRETS FOR SUCCESS
Radoslav Ivanov

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When the wind of change blows
some people build walls, other windmills
Images by David Mark and Carabo Spain from Pixabay

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We will talk about how to build the windmills
Image by Pexels from Pixabay

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In this presentation
I want to share my experience
For making changes easier and successful
Based on real projects
We will use simple but systematic approach
I will focus on proven methods
Applicable in most of the situations
Increasing your chances for success

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What I am going to tell you?
Justifying changes and impact identification
Why there is a resistance and how to make changes easier?
Definition of requirements and preparation of guidelines
Metrics, checks and controls
How to ensure good communication?
Presentation of the results

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Secrets for success
Methodological approach
Identify areas for improvement
Define required actions
Provide support and knowhow
Measure results
Use mechanisms for enforcing changes
Small steps every day
Consistency
Continues improvement

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Why do you want to change something?
How this change will make things better?
Why is it necessary?
What are the reasons?
What are the benefits?
Is it worth?
What do you want to achieve?
What we can loose if we don‘t change?

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What you want to change?
Identify areas for improvement
Problems
Needs
Potential improvements / optimizations
Quick wins / Pick the low hanging fruits first
Big benefits
High impact
Lower effort
Leave low priority / impact ones for the end

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What is the change impact?
What is going to change?
What will not change?
Who will be affected?
How this will affect them?
What will be the objections?

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Why people oppose changes / Why is there a resistance?
They put you out of your comfort zone
Lack of knowledge
There is a learning curve
Fear of higher effort
Fear of failure
Benefits are not clear enough

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Factors that make changes easier
Love/Passion/Motivation
Advantage
Fun / Joy
Competition
Clear benefits

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Define requirements
Justify the need
Why we need it?
Define clear goals
What we want to achieve?
Choose your strategy
How we are going to implement the change?
Turn your strategy into actions
What and how should be done?
Required actions / Responsibilities
Guidelines
Specify expected results/deliverables - What we want to have at the end?

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Know the people you are dealing with
Who are the people involved?
What do they need to know?
How the changes will impact them?
What is their motivation?
What are their fears?
What kind of groups they belong to
– users, managers, partners
What problems they have?

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Guidelines
Keep it simple
Short guidelines (few pages)
Check lists
Make it easy (and people will use it)
If it makes life easier
Saves time and efforts
Bring value
Make significant improvement

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Metrics
Defects
Incidents
Test cases
Response time
Known errors
Downloads

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Checks and controls
Well defined roles and responsibilities
Milestones
Deadlines
Measuring of progress and outcomes
Efficient
Automated
Mechanisms for control
Quality controls

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Good communication
Positive attitude
Honesty / Transparency
Clear expectations
Support and coaching
Regular feedback
Prize publicly
Criticize privately
Friendly atmosphere

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Create a communication message set
Well defined messages
Consistent communication
Good reasoning
Clear expectations
Openness
Transparency
Well defined outcomes
Honesty
Call to action – make it clear what you expect to happen

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Present results
Present results and outcomes
Benefits
Improvements
Lessons learned
Measure success
Comparison between past and present
How things changed
Leave the numbers talking
Celebrate success

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Example – Data warehouse project
Big data warehouse project
Processing hundreds of gigabytes data every day
Complex implementation and many dependencies
Changes necessary to bring improvements
Performance
Quality

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Example – justify changes
Why changes were necessary?
Problems with performance, quality and stability
Need of major improvements to go in production
What we wanted to achieve?
Improve quality
Optimize performance
Address most common mistakes – staging, transformations, inconsistencies
Start with the biggest package with many dependencies on it

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Example – Identify the impact
Change the way developers do their work
Adoption of additional techniques
Focus on quality and performance
Affects internal developers, external consultants and business analysts
There is a learning curve
Higher initial effort
Potential lack of knowledge

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Example – Define requirements
Goals - consistent implementation, improved maintainability, increased
performance, decreased resource usage, stable execution, better quality
What needs to be done? - review of artefacts, corresponding corrections,
retest and feedback to analysts, identification and correction of inconsistencies
How should be done? – required actions and responsibilities were clearly
defined and short guidelines and check lists were provided to developers
Expected results – in the guidelines was clearly stated what should be delivered
Benefits – benefits were clearly stated and communicated

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Example – Metrics, checks and controls
Metrics
performance, resource usage
number of defects, warnings and aborts
Checks
automated quality checks
scripts for checking of deliverables
Controls
daily tracking of progress and quality
request corrections in case of inconsistencies

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Example – Communication
People were involved from the very beginning in the process
Their feedback was used to identify the necessary changes and set the goals
Expectations were clearly communicated as well as the benefits from the changes
People were encouraged to support each other and ask for help if necessary
Senior developers were providing couching and support
Feedback was collected regularly
Issues were timely addressed
People were prized for their achievements
Positive and friendly atmosphere was maintained

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Example – Present results
Staging times Transformation times
Staging space

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Summary on making changes
Secrets for success
Identify areas for improvement
Define clear requirements
Provide support and knowhow
Measure results
Use mechanisms for enforcing changes
Present results
Celebrate success

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Questions and Feedback
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