Change Management Plan Template

What is a Change Management Plan?

A change management plan sets out how an organization will move its people from how they work today to how they will work after a change: who is affected, what they need, who is sponsoring it, and how adoption will be measured.

It is the people side of change. On a capital project, the construction contract delivers the building; the change management plan makes sure the people who occupy it are ready to work differently in it, and that they still are six months later.

It does not cover changes to construction scope, cost or schedule. Those run through the project's change control process and the change order register.

Change Management Plan Example

Here's an example of a change management plan, showing the change classification, the current and future state, and the impact assessment by group.

What Are the Components of a Change Management Plan?

A change management plan commonly includes at least seven components: what is changing and why, who it affects, who is sponsoring it, how it will be communicated, how people will be trained and supported, how resistance will be handled, and how adoption will be measured.

• Change description and case for change. The current state, the future state, and why the organization is moving between them.
• Impact assessment. Which groups are affected and how far the change reaches into each one's work.
• Sponsorship. The primary sponsor and the coalition beneath them. Weak sponsorship is the most common reason change work fails.
• Communications plan. What is said to each audience, by whom, through which channel, and when.
• Training and support. What each group needs to learn, and where they go when the change does not behave as described.
• Resistance management. Where resistance is expected and what the response is, planned before it appears.
• Measurement and sustainment. How adoption is measured, and what embeds the change once the project team leaves.

Larger changes add a readiness assessment and a change risk register covering risks to adoption rather than risks to delivery.

This free template covers all of it across twenty-two sections, grouped into seven stages, with a worked example running through them.

How to Create a Change Management Plan Using This Template

To create a change management plan, start with the change classification in section 3. It sets the scale of the change and determines which of the remaining sections you actually need, so a small change does not get a twenty-two section plan.

1. Complete document control, including the sponsor, the change manager, the go-live date, and how many people and groups are affected.
2. Classify the change, and use that to decide which sections apply.
3. Write the change description: current state, future state, the case for change, and the objectives.
4. Assess the impact on each group, then analyze each stakeholder group and identify its barrier point.
5. Confirm sponsorship. Name the primary sponsor, their commitments, and the coalition supporting them.
6. Assign roles, including the five duties each people manager carries.
7. Build the communications, training, resistance and support plans from the impact assessment, not from a standard list.
8. Set the operational readiness criteria that must be met before occupancy, and the adoption measures that follow.
9. Sequence everything against the go-live date in the implementation schedule.
10. Get it approved by somebody authorized to commit the resources it requires.

On a construction project, work backward from the occupancy date rather than practical completion. The building being finished and the people being ready are two different dates, and the second is the one that decides whether the asset performs.

Types of Change Management Plan Templates

The most common types are the organizational change management plan, the implementation plan, the communication plan, the training plan, the transition plan, and the agile change management plan. The structure is the same in each; what changes is the emphasis.

A communication plan and a training plan are sections of a change management plan, not alternatives to it. Writing either on its own leaves out the impact assessment that tells you what to communicate and who to train.

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Related Articles and Templates

Explore these resources for construction change control, approvals, tracking, and contract changes:

• Change Request Template
• Change Log Template
• Change Order Template
• Change Order Log
• Guide to Change Orders in Construction Projects
• Construction Change Order: Process, Tips & Best Practices