Agile Change Management; the agile approach to change

“Is it possible to learn how to be better at managing change in an agile world?”. This was the question Melanie Franklin, renowned Agile & Change Management expert, transformed into an answer. In 2014 she published the book “Agile Change Management – a practical framework for successful change planning and implementation”. The book provides an approach for managing transformational change initiatives, using a lot of the ideas from the agile methodologies. This book has led to the creation of the Agile Change Agent qualification.

Two years ago we had the opportunity to interview Melanie Franklin and today we are proud to announce the launch of the Agile Change Agent courses.

Agile Change Agent: an agile approach to change

An Agile approach to change is about doing change in waves of change. According to Melanie Franklin, Agile Change Management is about accepting that in this world of very fast moving change, it is not a good idea to try and plan every single change detail upfront.

The Agile Change Agent course & certification provides the participant with guidelines to those that want to work in a change. The course provides insight into how to plan and manage all the activities that are needed to design, deliver and adopt change in an Agile way.

The course answers the questions “What makes a change successful?” “What is it that we really need to know to make a change successful?” “How can we manage our changes in an agile world?”. It is not about what you have to do but how you are supposed to do it, the techniques you can use.

Are you an Agile Change Agent?

You are a change agent if you are responsible for the creation of new ways of working as a result of a project investment. Or if you are in a change management role, where you are identifying what needs to be done by those who are going to have to work differently.

But you are also a change agent if you are impacted by change in sales, marketing, HR, finance or other departments. You have daily priorities, you use existing ways of working to satisfy current customer demand and get the job done, but you are also mobilizing your colleagues and yourself to participate in the changes your organisation makes/decides. So you are acting as a change agent.

Understanding activities for effective change management and including them in your Agile project plan increases the chances that the deliverables from your project will be adopted as new business as usual working practices.

People may not be called Change Agents but the point is that on top of their daily job they have a role to help make change happen and ultimately integrate change into the current ways of working.

Why the Agile Change Agent course could be relevant for you?

• Agile and change explained on a practical level
• The course contains many problem solving techniques
• You can benefit from a practical kit of techniques, checklists and tools so you can start managing your change projects using what you have learnt from the moment you leave the course
• The course helps those who know about change understand Agile, and those who know about Agile learn about change
• You can get a qualification on your CV that proves you have skills in Agile and Change Management – hitting the two hottest topics in business today.

Want to know more? Visit our Agile Change Agent page