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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PLAN

ADKAR Organizational Change Plan

Northeastern Alumni Engagement Project
By
Group 4
PJM 6610 - Foundations of Project Business Analysis
Professor Dr. Darlington Akaiso
June 26TH, 2022

Organizational Change
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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PLAN
Student-Alumni Engagement platform is the strategic goal of Northeastern University to
build and enhance the structural framework that gives an extensible capability for engagement
and integration of the Alumni in the university during and after the program completion which is
in-line with the goal set in the NEU Strategic Plan 2025. The product provides a 360 degree view
of the individuals’ demographics, skills interests, a unified source of all the resources inside and
outside the university, a collaboration between current and alumni students for knowledge
sharing, opportunities (co-ops and part-time/full-time), and research an in building solutions for
the new global problems. The proposed organizational change is the implementation of a new
engagement platform that:
 Build technical capabilities to enable student enrollment with a summary of the
demographics, skills, interests, domain of expertise, communication, and collaboration
channels for engagement.
 Portal for Alumni to access resources made available in the university or through the
university for a continuous learning and development for the students, even after the
program is completed.
Ability to collaborate and communicate for knowledge sharing, opportunities for current students
and coordination for research engagements.

Solution

Developing a website that acts as an engagement platform by bridging the gap between
current students and Alumni.

Affected Stakeholder Groups

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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PLAN
Stakeholder Awareness Desire Knowledge Ability Reinforcement
Groups
Student The need to instill Lack of The project Before the final After launching the
Services a culture of engagement team would implementation website, the project team
Team Alumni-Students platform would create of our website, will continue to monitor
continuous essentially repositories the project team the performance of
engagement result in that detail the will provide website and feedback
surfaced from the prospective usage of the demo and from student services
recurring focus students website and shadow team before handing the
group meetings churning out train on the sessions for the project to them for day-
and peer-mentor their new way of student service to-day operations.
sessions conducted admissions. communicating team to enhance
by the Student This would and hands-on During this stage, the
Services team. indeed impact collaborating experience. project team continues to
the growth of with current Based on these evaluate the
During the the student students and sessions, the performance of student
requirements services team Alumni. As project team services team in terms of
planning phase, and in turn, opposed to the will incorporate if their productivity and
the project team may result in current way of feedback and efficiency are increased,
will reach out to potential lay- outreach where minor changes. if they are under stress,
the student offs and the student Post the demo etc.
services team to attrition. services team session, a pilot
create awareness send emails to is conducted
of this impending During the current with audience
need and how this design phase, students and from the
project will serve we flex from Alumni student services
the need. creating waiting for team, project
awareness to their response, team, and
instilling a the platform operations team
desire to eliminates this to create use-
acquire their outreach case scenarios
support. model. By for at least 2
enrolling the weeks.
entire audience
Find out what through a
current and single step
former very similar to
students are adding an
interested in audience on
during the Canvas tool,
ideation the platform
process and enhances the
build a plan on productivity of
this the student
information. services team.
Therefore, we
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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PLAN
will closely
involve student
services team
during the
implementatio
n phase.
IT Team Conduct a The website is Discuss The sprint The IT support team
requirements proposed to be additional planning or monitors and manages
refinement built on training product the website services and
meeting with modern support if the increment platform once
Solution Architect technologies team members meeting to production release is
and IT Team to and tools. require to build connect, completed by the IT
identify and Conduct a the skill for thecollaborate and Team.
document the meeting with project and establish the
capabilities the IT team to their career. communication The Tier1 team will
required to build explain the between the monitor for any
the website technology Periodic “show SME of the exceptions and failures
(Erskine, 2013). skill they can and tell” NEU business in the systems and
learn and use meeting with systems, functional flows and
Communicate and in the project. the IT team to architects, and report them to Tier 2
collaborate with IT validate and the IT Team to team for analysis and
Team weekly to Explain the verify the walk through possible fixing.
define what is value-add each website the functional
needed to review team member implementatio points desired Tier 2 team will find the
the design, contributes to n and provide and what is resolution, fixes, and
implementation the project and the feedback required from deployment of the fixes
and document the the NEU on any the IT Team in into the production
challenges, and Strategic Plan improvements building the servers after the
risk identified by 2025 or website. necessary testing is
the IT team. enhancements performed.
to be made to The SME will
Prioritize the the website by provide the
stories and tasks the IT Team existing system
for the IT Team. landscapes and
how IT team
Document the can integrate
required the website.
integrations,
performance, Document
and quality of components
the website. and modules
required to
Training build functions
access to -
refresh or learn authentication,
the skills authorization,
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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PLAN
required to entitlements,
develop the resources
platform. repository
access, view the
Alumni
profiles,
communicate,
and collaborate
on an
opportunity for
the enrolled
members.

The solution
must be
responsive,
high
availability and
reactive so that
different
channels – web
and mobile can
be used.
Operations Operations team is Current This new The project Once the platform has
Team responsible for process platform will team will train been launched the
reaching out to the followed by bring new the operations project and operations
current students operations technology and team on how to team will continuously
and the alumni team is that features that operate the monitor how the
with regards to any they reach out will help platform and platform is being used
formal information to student and operations will provide by user groups. These
to be shared by the alumni in an team connect any additional data points will help the
university. Current ineffective way and support when operations team to
reaching-out and often this communicate needed. This come-up with any
process is communication with different will features or content type
cumbersome and is through user groups. significantly that need to be further
requires the multiple enhance their developed to enhance
operations team to platforms. For this they ability to use user engagement.
utilize multiple will have to the platform.
sources. The Introduction of gain
project team needs this platform knowledge
to raise the will about the
awareness that this significantly usability of the
platform will help reduce the platform from
them streamline manual work an operations
their reach-out and of operations perspective.
communication team, and this
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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PLAN
efforts. will help the They will have
team focus to learn the
more on campaign
strategic task management
like features of the
collaborating tool to launch
with Marketing new
team to draft campaigns.
more effective
content and They will also
programs that have to gain an
would keep the understanding
users engaged about how this
platform is
being used by
different user
group through
data generated
by usages
Strategic Project team will The current For creating Project team To sustain engagement
Marketing present email, and data points of content which will train the of users after the
Team other content is more marketing team platform has been
communication engagement contextual and on all platform developed the marketing
channel data points and engaging it functionalities team will have to
to the marketing communication must be data and will also continuously engage
team to showcase effectiveness driven. Hence provide session with the user groups to
that the current will ignite a the. Marketing on how to understand their
approach of need for team will have crunch content preferences in terms of
generating generic change to acquire the effectiveness content and also co-
content and mass- amongst the knowledge of data and how to relate these findings
communication marketing exporting and tie it back to with the usage data.
efforts and not team and analyzing creation of
working and that would content and effective This will help them
there is a need for strengthen creative content and build highly engaging
change in the way their desire to effectiveness creative. content and
content is create content data. communication
developed and and creatives campaigns.
communicated. that are more Also they will
contextual and have to gain
engaging for the knowledge
the audience of utilizing
user data to
create more
effective
creatives and
A/B testing
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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PLAN
Co-op Team Students are Determine and The co-op The Co-op As the students are
perfectly aware of find the best team must team will frequently preoccupied
the need for this opportunities ensure that communicate with their studies and
online platform for both every student with the recent fail to attend reflective
because employers as is eligible for graduates as teaching events. Because
networking is well as for the co-op criteria. they are able to many overseas students
essential for current accept and are members of the
finding jobs, co- students Their part is to adapt to change student community and
ops, and internship through analyze the job because they work part-time, it is
opportunities. communicating field and look desire an difficult to make time
with alumni after esteemed interactive for themselves because
students. companies network- school and part-time
which are a building jobs consume the
crucial asset platform that majority of their time.
for internships. will help them
To do so, develop their Therefore, the co-op
proper research skills and land team has to provide
should be done their dream relevant courses and
into the jobs. workshops in the
employment website so that students
sector. This would in can fully avail this
return benefit platform at their own
They should the current convenience.
consider the students and the
technique of co-op team will
benchmarking provide
so that their relevant
work gets a sessions and
little easier in workshops to
executing the prepare the
mentioned students to
outcomes. attain good co-
op positions.

References
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ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE PLAN
Erskine. (2013). ITIL and organizational change. IT Governance Publishing.