Change Impact Assessment Toolkit

What is Change Impact Assessment?

Change Impact Assessment (CIA) is a structured process to identify, analyse, and plan for the effects of a proposed change on your organisation. It answers the question: "If we make this change, what else will be affected?"

Why Change Impact Assessment Matters

Without Impact Assessment: -Unintended consequences and hidden costs -Scope creep and budget overruns -Inadequate stakeholder engagement -Failed implementations and user resistance -Regulatory breaches due to overlooked impacts

With Impact Assessment:

• Comprehensive understanding of change implications
• Realistic budget and timeline estimates
• Proactive stakeholder management
• Smooth implementation with user buy-in
• Reduced risk and increased success rate

Change Impact Assessment Framework

┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│ CHANGE IMPACT ASSESSMENT FRAMEWORK                          │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘

STEP 1: DEFINE THE CHANGE
• What is changing? (scope)
• Why is it changing? (business case)
• When is it changing? (timeline)

STEP 2: IDENTIFY IMPACTED AREAS
• People (roles, skills, behaviours)
• Process (workflows, procedures)
• Technology (systems, data, interfaces)
• Organisation (structure, governance)
• Customers (experience, communications)

STEP 3: ASSESS IMPACT SEVERITY
• Rate each impact (High/Medium/Low)
• Quantify where possible (cost, effort, time)

STEP 4: ANALYSE DEPENDENCIES
• What must happen before this change?
• What is blocked by this change?
• What else changes as a result?

STEP 5: DEVELOP MITIGATION PLAN
• Actions to reduce negative impacts
• Contingency plans for risks
• Change management approach

STEP 6: STAKEHOLDER ENGAGEMENT
• Identify affected stakeholders
• Communication plan
• Training and support needs

STEP 7: APPROVAL AND SIGN-OFF
• Present impact assessment to governance
• Obtain approvals
• Document decisions

Impact Assessment Template

Section 1: Change Overview

CHANGE ID: CHG-2025-001
CHANGE TITLE: Implement Real-Time Trade Surveillance System
CHANGE TYPE: Technology Implementation
CHANGE SPONSOR: Chief Compliance Officer
REQUESTED BY: FCA Regulatory Review
DATE: 15 January 2025

CHANGE DESCRIPTION:
Replace batch-based trade surveillance system with real-time surveillance
platform to detect market abuse within 1 minute of execution (vs T+1 today).

BUSINESS JUSTIFICATION:
• FCA identified current system as inadequate (T+1 detection too slow)
• Reduce false positive rate from 85% to <20%
• Free up 30 hours/week of analyst time
• Demonstrate continuous improvement to regulator

SUCCESS CRITERIA:
• Real-time detection (<1 minute latency)
• False positive rate <20%
• Zero false negatives (100% detection of suspicious activity)
• Go-live by Q2 2025 (before FCA inspection)

BUDGET: £250k
TIMELINE: 20 weeks (Jan - May 2025)

Section 2: Impact Analysis by Dimension

2.1 People Impact

Summary:

• Total FTE impacted: 8 people
• Training required: 2 days per person (analyst), 1 day (others)
• Change resistance risk: MEDIUM (analysts concerned about real-time pressure)
• Mitigation: Early engagement, pilot with 1 analyst, emphasise efficiency gains

2.2 Process Impact

Process Maps:

• As-Is BPMN created
• To-Be BPMN created
• Gap analysis in progress
• New procedures to be drafted (due: Week 8)

2.3 Technology Impact

Infrastructure Requirements:

• AWS cloud environment (2 EC2 instances, RDS database, S3 storage)
• Kafka message queue (new)
• Network firewall rules for vendor access

Data Migration:

• Historical alerts (last 12 months) to be migrated for trend analysis
• Estimated 500,000 records
• Migration window: Week 12-13

2.4 Data Impact

Data Retention:

• Alert data: 7 years (regulatory requirement)
• Archived to S3 Glacier after 1 year

Data Privacy:

• Trade data contains personal data (trader names)
• GDPR compliance: Data processing agreement with ThetaRay

2.5 Organisation Impact

2.6 Customer/External Impact

Section 3: Risk Assessment

Section 4: Dependencies

Pre-requisites (must complete before this change):

1. FCA approval for real-time surveillance approach
2. Budget approval (£250k)
3. Kafka infrastructure provisioning (due: Week 2)
4. ThetaRay contract signed (due: Week 1)
5. Real-Time Surveillance Lead hired (due: Week 4)

Dependent Changes (blocked by this change):

• Expansion of surveillance to FX trading (deferred to Phase 2, Q3 2025)
• Integration with trade reporting system (deferred to Q4 2025)

Concurrent Changes (happening in parallel):

• T+1 settlement project (separate programme, some resource overlap)
• OMS upgrade (potential conflict: need OMS stable during surveillance go-live)

Section 5: Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder Engagement Plan:

• Pre-Launch: Town hall (all staff, Week 1), Q&A sessions (analysts, Week 2-4)
• During Build: Weekly demos to analysts, fortnightly steering committee
• Pre-Go-Live: UAT with analysts (Week 16-18), sign-off meetings
• Post-Go-Live: Daily stand-ups (Week 20-22), hypercare support

Section 6: Change Management Plan

Communication Plan

Training Plan

Resistance Management

Expected Sources of Resistance:

1. Analysts: Fear of real-time pressure, loss of control
2. IT: Concerned about 24/7 support burden
3. Some managers: Comfortable with current process

Mitigation Strategies:

1. Early Involvement: Include analysts in design workshops (co-create workflows)
2. Pilot Approach: Test with 1 analyst first, refine based on feedback
3. Emphasise Benefits: Highlight 75% reduction in false positives (less work)
4. Support: Provide 4 weeks of daily support during hypercare
5. Quick Wins: Demonstrate early efficiency gains (faster investigations)

Section 7: Implementation Approach

Phased Rollout

Phase 1: Pilot (Weeks 16-17)

• Single analyst, single trading desk
• Run in parallel with old system
• Gather feedback, refine workflows

Phase 2: Expanded Pilot (Weeks 18-19)

• All analysts, all desks
• Continue parallel run
• Final refinements

Phase 3: Go-Live (Week 20)

• Switch to new system as primary
• Old system retained as fallback for 4 weeks
• Daily monitoring and support

Phase 4: Hypercare (Weeks 20-23)

• Daily stand-ups with analysts
• Rapid issue resolution
• Performance monitoring

Phase 5: BAU Handover (Week 24)

• System stable, users confident
• Handover to BAU support team
• Post-implementation review

Rollback Plan

Trigger for Rollback:

• System unavailability >4 hours during trading day
• False negative detected (missed genuine market abuse)
• User rejection (majority of analysts cannot use system effectively)

Rollback Steps:

1. Decision to rollback made by CCO + CTO
2. Re-enable batch surveillance system (takes 1 hour)
3. Notify all users, FCA (if material)
4. Root cause analysis + remediation plan
5. Re-plan go-live

Section 8: Cost-Benefit Analysis

Costs

Benefits (3-Year)

ROI: 174% (3-year) Payback: 18 months

Section 9: Success Metrics

Section 10: Approval and Sign-Off

Impact Assessment Checklist

Discovery Phase

• Change clearly defined (scope, timeline, budget)
• Business justification documented
• Stakeholders identified
• Current state documented (process maps, system diagrams)

Impact Analysis Phase

• People impact assessed (roles, skills, training)
• Process impact assessed (workflows, procedures)
• Technology impact assessed (systems, data, integrations)
• Organisation impact assessed (structure, governance)
• Customer/external impact assessed
• Dependencies identified (pre-requisites, dependent changes)
• Risks identified and mitigation plans created

Planning Phase

• Change management plan created
• Communication plan created
• Training plan created
• Implementation approach defined (phased, big-bang, pilot)
• Rollback plan created
• Success metrics defined

Approval Phase

• Impact assessment reviewed with stakeholders
• Approvals obtained (sponsor, technical, budget, risk)
• Governance approval (exec committee, board)

Implementation Phase

• Impact assessment kept up-to-date as changes occur
• Stakeholder engagement ongoing
• Issues logged and tracked
• Success metrics monitored

Post-Implementation Phase

• Benefits realisation review
• Lessons learned captured
• Impact assessment archived for future reference

Impact Assessment Best Practices

Start Early: Conduct impact assessment during requirements phase (not after design) Involve Stakeholders: Don't assess in isolation; interview affected parties Be Realistic: Don't underestimate effort, cost, or resistance Quantify: Use numbers where possible (time, cost, FTE) Think End-to-End: Consider upstream and downstream impacts Document Assumptions: Make constraints and dependencies explicit Update Regularly: Impact assessment is living document, not one-time exercise Use for Governance: Present to approval bodies (exec committee, board)

Change Impact Rating Matrix

                  ORGANISATIONAL IMPACT

    HIGH    │  MAJOR CHANGE        │  TRANSFORMATIONAL
            │  (6-12 months)       │  (12-24 months)
            │                      │
COMPLEXITY │──────────────────────│─────────────────────
            │                      │
    LOW     │  MINOR CHANGE        │  MODERATE CHANGE
            │  (1-3 months)        │  (3-6 months)

                  LOW ─────────────► HIGH
                     TECHNICAL COMPLEXITY

Minor Change: Single system, limited users, low risk Moderate Change: Multiple systems, significant user impact Major Change: Cross-functional, org structure change, regulatory Transformational: Enterprise-wide, strategic, cultural shift

Next Steps

1. Download this template
2. Select a change to assess (system upgrade, process change, org restructure)
3. Complete the impact assessment template
4. Review with stakeholders
5. Present to governance for approval
6. Use assessment to inform implementation plan

Need Expert Support?

Managing complex change requires expertise in impact analysis, stakeholder engagement, and programme management. If you're facing a major transformation or regulatory change, contact our team for a consultation.

Template Version: 1.0 Last Updated: January 2025 Compatible With: ADKAR, Kotter, Prosci change management frameworks License: Free for commercial use with attribution