Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
•
Project phase
- where the change is actually starting to be introduced. In this
second phase the actual consequences of the change become visible as the
project progresses. At this stage it is important to diagnose employees' resist-
ance to change and to enable and support the employees' transition through the
change process. With a comprehensive communication strategy it is important
to keep employees and management informed.
•
Stabilization phase
- in which the new solution is stabilized. Major change
management activities at this stage are training for employees and support for
establishment of the new processes.
The necessary change management activities during the introduction of Grid and
Cloud Computing in the three above mentioned phases are:
•
Initiation phase:
First it is important to identify all employees that might be
affected by the introduction of Grid and Cloud Computing. Typically these
are employees and managers of the involved IT department, end users and the
company management. Specific action need to be taken to create awareness
for current problem areas and for the potential of Grid and Cloud Computing
to provide a solution for them. Possible activities to involve employees and
to create awareness are: organization of common workshops to discuss the
problem, presentations about Grid and Cloud Computing, provision of informa-
tion to successful cases studies of successful Grid and Cloud Computing imple-
mentation and similar.
•
Project phase:
One major instrument of change management in this phase is
a comprehensive communication strategy. A communication plan needs to
be developed with communication activities addressing the employees and
reporting about the progress of the project. The communication measures might
include a mixture of instruments as for example: blogs, project wikis, project
newsletters, face-to-face meetings and personal discussion rounds.
•
Stabilization phase:
In the stabilization phase it is of high importance to have the
new IT governance in place on time and to establish grid-training programs for
all involved employees. It is also important to establish support activities and to
guide the employees through the new solution.
14.4 Summary and Conclusion
This topic started with a vision of using computing as utility in a way as simple as
using electricity. This vision implies that, if the Utility Computing infrastructure is
in place, we do not have to worry about hardware on which our application runs,
about software updates, standards, system software, sufficient storage and similar.
The availability and maturing of Grid and Cloud Computing is an important mile-
stone in achieving this vision.
