Change Management Plan for Sunoco Inc. to Move to Cloud-based Data

This Change Management Plan outlines the challenges, solutions, stakeholders, and approach for Sunoco Inc. to move to cloud-based data. The plan includes technical feasibility analysis, security measures, cost-benefit analysis, and agile change management approach.

Sunoco Inc.
Change Management Plan
9/20/2018

Change Management Plan
Table of Contents
Three Biggest Challenges to Move to Cloud-based Data......................................................................3
Recommended Solutions...................................................................................................................3
Organization Metaphor & Culture.........................................................................................................4
Important Stakeholders......................................................................................................................4
Change Management Team & Roles.................................................................................................4
Identify the Change...............................................................................................................................5
Type of Change.................................................................................................................................5
Reason for Change............................................................................................................................5
Scope.................................................................................................................................................5
Where are you now?..........................................................................................................................6
What do you want to be?...................................................................................................................6
5 Concept Shifts................................................................................................................................6
Organization Change Readiness........................................................................................................6
Particulars of Change............................................................................................................................7
How will you get there?.....................................................................................................................7
Process Change..................................................................................................................................7
People Change...................................................................................................................................7
Information Sharing...........................................................................................................................7
Cost of Change..................................................................................................................................7
Risk Assessment................................................................................................................................7
Change Management Approach.............................................................................................................8
Justification.......................................................................................................................................8
Stakeholder Analysis.........................................................................................................................8
Resistance to Change.........................................................................................................................9
Role of Change Management Team...................................................................................................9
Agile Change Management Plan...........................................................................................................9
Sprint 1..............................................................................................................................................9
Sprint 2..............................................................................................................................................9
Sprint 3..............................................................................................................................................9
Sprint 4..............................................................................................................................................9
Sprint 5..............................................................................................................................................9
Roles & Responsibilities..................................................................................................................10
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Change Management Plan
Justification of the Selection............................................................................................................10
Development of Sub-Plans..................................................................................................................10
Action Plan......................................................................................................................................10
Communication Plan.......................................................................................................................10
Training Plan...................................................................................................................................11
Business Systems Plan.....................................................................................................................11
Resistance Plan................................................................................................................................11
Conclusion...........................................................................................................................................11
References...........................................................................................................................................12
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Change Management Plan
Three Biggest Challenges to Move to Cloud-based Data
The change requested is to move the data sets of Sunoco Inc. to the cloud-based platforms.
There are certain challenges that are involved in the process.
The first and the foremost is the presence of dependable technology infrastructure in the
organization. The organization will have a lot of reliance on the cloud computing frameworks
and services with the involvement of cloud-based data. It will be necessary to evaluate the
technical infrastructure of the company in terms of redundancies and abilities to prevent
outages, multiple ISPs reliable in nature, backup plan and processes, and likewise.
The second challenge is the security threats that are associated with cloud computing that
may get involved at the time of movement. Cloud computing is exposed to various security
threats, such as malware attacks, man in the middle attacks, data breaches, eavesdropping
attacks, data leakage, etc. These threats will get associated with the information sets of
Sunoco Inc. while transition from current system to the cloud-based frameworks. There will
be enhanced vulnerabilities at the time of transition which may increase the probability of
these attacks (Svantesson and Clarke, 2010).
The third challenge will be in the terms of costs. The implementation errors or occurrence of
a security event will lead to an increase in the costs which may not be possible to be
controlled.
Recommended Solutions
It is recommended that the organization carries out technical feasibility analysis before
migrating to the cloud-based data. The set of pros and loopholes will be identified and the
migration of the data sets shall be done accordingly.
The security threats shall be avoided by encrypting all of the data sets. There shall be used of
penetration testing tools, network-based intrusion detection systems, and firewalls to avoid
malicious entities to enter the network channels. Anti-malware packages shall also be
incorporated (Tivey and Pearson, 2015).
The cost-benefit analysis shall be done and there must be earned value analysis carried out at
regular intervals to determine the gaps in costs and to avoid the same.
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Change Management Plan
Organization Metaphor & Culture
Organization as System of Change & Flux is the organization metaphor that is associated
with Sunoco Inc. The organization culture that is followed in the company is the use and
implementation of cohesive, collaborated, and cross-cultural perspective to make sure that the
teams work together as a single unit to achieve the organization goals (Rao, 2010).
Important Stakeholders
 Mr Albert (New Chief Information Officer): The change has been requested by the
stakeholder and therefore, it will involve highest level of interest and influence. The
contribution will be made in terms of requirements and funds.
 High-Level Management: This is the stakeholder group that will be primarily
concerned with the end-results and revenues for the organization.
 Middle Level Management: These are the stakeholders that may be resistant to change
as the introduction of cloud-based data will bring in operational and managerial
modifications.
 Operational Staff: The employees of the organization working on the systems and
operational activities will be involved in the process of requirements gathering and
will provide their feedback. These will be the primary end-users.
 Supplier Groups: There may be tools, cloud services, and platforms needed to make
the change and it will be delivered by the stakeholder group.
 Project Manager & Change Management Team: The implementation of the requested
change will be done by the stakeholder group.
Change Management Team & Roles
Role Responsibilities
Project Manager Planning of the changes and the monitoring of the
changes will be done by the member. The estimations,
planning, and closure will also be performed.
Chief Information Officer The sharing of the requirements and approval on the
change requests will be made (Gareis and Huemann,
2008).
Security Analyst The security testing and implementation of security
controls will be performed by the resource.
Data Analyst The analysis of the requirements, current data sets, and
cloud-based services will be done by the resource.
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Change Management Plan
Migration process will be conducted by the member.
Data Scientist Migration of the data sets and the management of the
process.
Technical Expert Technical Feasibility study and the migration of the
data sets by deploying cloud-based platforms.
Network Engineer Network security, maintenance of network security
logs, and network testing.
Identify the Change
Type of Change
The change requested is a technology change in which the operational data sets will be
migrated to the cloud-based platforms. The cloud-based data warehouse and business
intelligence concepts will also be introduced in the organization as an outcome.
System change and process change are the two types of change that will be introduced.
Reason for Change
The reason for change is the enhancement in technology and to maintain the pace with the
changing nature of technology. The operational data sets will be handled better on the cloud.
The Business Intelligence concepts as data warehousing and data analytics will ensure that
the relevant information is extracted from the data sets.
The move will provide competitive edge in the market and will allow the organization to earn
better profits and revenues.
Scope
The scope of change includes the migration of operation data on the cloud and inclusion of
technological tools and concepts of Business Intelligence in the architecture.
It will impact all the departments and the stakeholders of the organization as the change is
large-scale and complex in nature.
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Change Management Plan
Where are you now?
Currently, the paper-based records have been migrated to the computer-based records. The
decision is to be made on the usage of private cloud or Amazon Web Services (AWS) to
move to the cloud-based platforms.
The current system is not sufficient to handle the expanding rate of business operations and
the data sets cannot be adequately managed with the current processes used.
What do you want to be?
The expectation and requirement is to move to the cloud-based platforms for the purpose of
data storage and management.
It will allow the business to develop a competitive edge in the market and earn better
revenues. The cloud-platform will either be private cloud or AWS will be used to make sure
that the elements of security and privacy are always maintained. Data Scientist, Data Analyst,
Chief Information Officer, Security Analyst, and Technical resources will be impacted by the
change. It will lead to enhancement of data management and data handling activities and will
also improve.
5 Concept Shifts
Knowledge development, creation of ideas, building concepts, concept frameworks, and
innovation in the organization will witness a paradigm shift.
Organization Change Readiness
 Technical compatibility analysis shows that the cloud-based platforms can be
implemented in the organization.
 Technical and operational compatibility and feasibility analysis shows that the
migration of the existing data can be done on the new platform.
 The skills and competencies needed to implement the change are available with the
organization.
 Maintenance frameworks are in place
 Training of the employees will be needed so that the operational errors are minimized.
 Secure architecture is available with the organization.
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Change Management Plan
Particulars of Change
How will you get there?
New systems and new processes will be needed to implement the change. The new systems
will include the cloud-based platforms and Business Intelligence tools. The processes will
include cloud data storage and handling, data warehousing, data analytics, and online
analytics processing of the data sets. The organization structure will not be altered.
The sharing and transfer of knowledge among the stakeholders during the change
implementation will be done as per the existing communication plan of the organization.
Process Change
The process changes will include the migration of the computer-based records to the cloud-
platforms. There will be complexities associated with the process as Business Intelligence
concepts will also be incorporated and the security protocols will be implemented as well.
The changes will be implemented using agile methodology for change management and
implementation.
People Change
The change will allow the business to develop a competitive edge in the market and earn
better revenues. The cloud-platform will either be private cloud or AWS will be used to make
sure that the elements of security and privacy are always maintained. Data Scientist, Data
Analyst, Chief Information Officer, Security Analyst, and Technical resources will be
impacted by the change. It will lead to enhancement of data management and data handling
activities and will also improve.
Information Sharing
The information sharing will be done as per the existing communication plan of the
organization.
Cost of Change
The cost of change will include the cost of tools, cost of resources, implementation, and
maintenance costs. The funds will be provided by the provided organizations.
Risk Assessment
The changes that will be associated with the project will be security risks and attacks,
technical errors, operational errors, and quality issues.
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Change Management Plan
The avoidance and mitigation strategies will be involved with the management of the risks.
Change Management Approach
The change management approach that will be followed in this case will be agile change
management approach. It is an ad-hoc approach in which the decisions will be taken as per
the scenario and there will no pre-defined set of steps. The changes in the project will be
made in a set of sprints. For instance, the migration to the cloud-based platforms will be done
by dividing the information sets in various packages. The classification may be done on the
basis of the information category or any other parameter. The first sprint will involve the
migration of the public data sets (Juricek, 2014). The second sprint may include the migration
of non-critical data sets. Similarly, private, sensitive, and critical data sets will be handled and
migrated in the next set of phases. There will be feedback process involved at the end of
every sprint which will provide an opportunity of making improvements in the next set of
sprints.
Justification
The selection of the change management approach as agile is justified as it will provide the
organization with the ability to remain flexible and scalable in the operations. There may be
further modification required in the requested set of changes that may be essential to be done
in the advanced stages of change implementation. The incorporation of these modifications
will be easy to execute with agile methodology for change management. There will be a
feedback process involved at the end of every sprint which will increase the end-user
satisfaction levels (Serrador and Pinto, 2015).
Stakeholder Analysis
Mr Albert (New Chief Information Officer) has requested the change and therefore, it will
involve highest level of interest and influence. The contribution will be made in terms of
requirements and funds. High-Level Management is the stakeholder group that will be
primarily concerned with the end-results and revenues for the organization. Middle Level
Management is the stakeholder that may be resistant to change as the introduction of cloud-
based data will bring in operational and managerial modifications. The employees of the
organization working on the systems and operational activities will be involved in the process
of requirements gathering and will provide their feedback. These will be the primary end-
users. There may be tools, cloud services, and platforms needed to make the change and it
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Change Management Plan
will be delivered by the supplier group. The implementation of the requested change will be
done by the Project Manager & Change Management Team.
Resistance to Change
The resources of the organization will resist to the changes that will be made to the
organization.
Role of Change Management Team
The implementation of the changes will be done by the change management team and the
resources will carry out identification, execution, control, and reinforcement of the changes.
Agile Change Management Plan
The change management approach that will be followed in this case will be agile change
management approach. It is an ad-hoc approach in which the decisions will be taken as per
the scenario and there will no pre-defined set of steps. The changes in the project will be
made in a set of sprints. For instance, the migration to the cloud-based platforms will be done
by dividing the information sets in various packages (Williams and Cockburn, 2013). The
classification may be done on the basis of the information category or any other parameter.
The changes will be kept in a product backlog and the sprint backlog will extract the changes
from the product backlog for its execution.
Sprint 1
The first sprint will involve the migration of the public data sets.
Sprint 2
The second sprint will include the migration of non-critical data sets.
Sprint 3
The third sprint will include the migration of private and confidential data sets.
Sprint 4
The fourth sprint will include the migration of sensitive data sets.
Sprint 5
The fifth sprint will include the migration of critical data sets.
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Change Management Plan
Roles & Responsibilities
Role Responsibilities
Project Manager Change planning, monitoring, estimations, and closure
Chief Information Officer Requirements Sharing, Approval of Change Requests
Security Analyst Security testing, implementation of security controls
Data Analyst Analysis of the requirements, current data sets, and
cloud-based services, migration process
Data Scientist Migration of the data sets and the management of the
process
Technical Expert Technical Feasibility study, migration of the data sets
by deploying cloud-based platforms
Network Engineer Network security, maintenance of network security
logs, and network testing
Justification of the Selection
The selection of the change management plan and approach as agile is justified as it will
provide the organization with the ability to remain flexible and scalable in the operations.
There may be further modification required in the requested set of changes that may be
essential to be done in the advanced stages of change implementation. The incorporation of
these modifications will be easy to execute with agile methodology for change management.
There will be a feedback process involved at the end of every sprint which will increase the
end-user satisfaction levels.
Development of Sub-Plans
Action Plan
The information gathered from the above sections will provide the areas of improvements for
the change execution and implementation processes. The set of actions will be identified and
the actions will be taken accordingly in a phased manner. The phases shall include the
inception of change/scenario and followed by the discussion among team members and then
final go-ahead.
Communication Plan
The team roles have been identified and the use of agile management will involve a daily
stand-up in which the progress of the changes, issues, and risks will be discussed and
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Change Management Plan
communicated (Ziek and Anderson, 2015). The medium of communication shall be identified
along with the involving team members and the frequency of interaction.
There will be change requests and change status reports shared with the stakeholders.
Training Plan
The cloud-based data and platforms will be introduced for the first time and the training will
be needed for the resources of Sunoco Inc. The training plan shall include the training needs,
training schedule, and training modules. It will also include the feedbacks from the trainees
along with the specific needs of the future trainees.
Business Systems Plan
The plan shall cover the business operations and functions, maintenance cycles, and shall also
indicate the roles and responsibilities of each of the resource involved. It will also include a
resource histogram and specific duration for which a particular resource shall be allocated to
perform a testable requirement.
Resistance Plan
The changes may be resisted by middle level management and operational staff members.
The resistance plan shall include the communication and training initiatives to make the
resources aware of the benefits that the cloud-based data may provide to them and to the
organization. The plan will include monitoring the changes in the scope of the project along
with whether a change request should be accepted.
Conclusion
Agile methodology shall be used for the management of the changes requested by the
organization. The stakeholders will be communicated about the change and the resources will
carry out these changes in the series of sprints. The agile methodology will make sure that the
changes implemented enhance the scalability and flexibility of the processes.
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Change Management Plan
References
Gareis, R. and Huemann, M. (2008). Change management and projects. International
Journal of Project Management, 26(8), pp.771-772.
Juricek, J. (2014). Agile Project Management Principles. Lecture Notes on Software
Engineering, pp.172-175.
Rao, V. (2010). The Eight Metaphors of Organization. [online] ribbonfarm. Available at:
https://www.ribbonfarm.com/2010/07/13/the-eight-metaphors-of-organization/ [Accessed 20
Sep. 2018].
Serrador, P. and Pinto, J. (2015). Does Agile work? — A quantitative analysis of agile
project success. International Journal of Project Management, 33(5), pp.1040-1051.
Svantesson, D. and Clarke, R. (2010). Privacy and consumer risks in cloud computing.
Computer Law & Security Review, 26(4), pp.391-397.
Tivey, J. and Pearson, F. (2015). Protecting yourself from cloud-based risks. Computer
Fraud & Security, 2015(6), pp.18-20.
Williams, L. and Cockburn, A. (2013). Agile software development: it's about feedback and
change. Computer, 36(6), pp.39-43.
Ziek, P. and Anderson, J. (2015). Communication, dialogue and project management.
International Journal of Managing Projects in Business, 8(4), pp.788-803.
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