Projects and programs by their very nature cause change, and the most sophisticated organizations are acknowledging that all strategic change happens through projects and programs. Project, program and portfolio managers who want to help their organizations be successful are ensuring they have the skills to manage change as part of their talent portfolio.

Recent research from PMI’s Pulse of the Profession™ showed that change management contributes to the increased success of projects and programs. For example, PMI’s 2012 Pulse of the Profession™ In-Depth Study on Organizational Agility showed that organizations highly effective at change management are 117 percent more likely than less effective organizations to report increased success with new initiatives.

To help practitioners across all industries enhance their change management skills, PMI is launching Managing Change in Organizations: A Practice Guide. The guide is available for free download in PDF format for a limited time.

The change management practice guide helps project and program managers build the capability to successfully identify change elements and account for them within the project/program plan. It identifies effective change management practices and how they can be applied to organizational project management, as well as portfolio, program and project management. It also serves as a guide to help project managers ensure that the entire team understands the dynamics of managing change.

This guide integrates change management practices that have been embedded in PMI’s global standards and certifications for many years.

Available free to everyone, not just PMI members, for a limited time.

Since every project involves managing change in organizations, at Key Consulting we’ve been saying for a long time that project managers would benefit from better change management skills.  We see this as a useful and timely effort by the Project Management Institute (PMI).

Take a look at the guide, and let us what you think in the comments below.