Old and New Story’s: A Practical Example of Collaboration

Please ensure you read the all the articles in this sequence: 

1. Old and New Story's
2. Old and New Story's: Navigating the Gap Where Change Actually Happens
3. Old and New Story's: Why Business Analysts and the Change Management Team Must Collaborate
4. Old and New Story’s: A Practical Example of Collaboration
5. The Art of Asking: Why Questions Matter in Stakeholder Interview

Practical Example

Having read the first three articles above, let's see how this all comes together with a real-world scenario:

Scenario: Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) Implementation

A manufacturing company is replacing its 20-year-old legacy systems with a modern cloud-based ERP. The finance, operations, and supply chain teams will all be impacted.  We will focus on the Old and New Story’s for the finance team.

Developing the Old Story

Step 1: BA Gathers Technical Facts

The Business Analyst conducts process analysis and discovers:

• Finance uses 5 separate systems for order-to-cash process
• Average order processing time: 4.2 hours
• Manual data entry at each step with no validation
• Invoice error rate: 23%
• No real-time inventory visibility
• Month-end close takes 15 days
• Spreadsheet-based reporting with manual consolidation

Step 2: CM Explores Human Experience

The Change Manager conducts stakeholder interviews and learns:

• Finance team has used these systems for 15+ years
• Team members are considered "system experts" and take pride in this
• Complex Excel workarounds have been created and are trusted more than the systems
• Fear of job loss due to automation is widespread but unspoken
• Previous failed implementation attempt 10 years ago created skepticism
• Concerns about learning new technology ("I'm too old to learn new systems")
• Strong relationships built around helping each other navigate system complexity

Step 3: Create Integrated Old Story

"Today, our finance team processes orders by manually entering data into five different systems—a time-consuming process that takes over four hours per order and leads to a 23% error rate on invoices. Without real-time visibility into inventory, we can't give customers accurate delivery dates, which hurts our service reputation and leads to expediting costs.

While this is frustrating and inefficient, our experienced team has become experts at navigating these complex systems. They've built sophisticated Excel tools and creative workarounds that they trust and rely on. The team takes pride in their specialized knowledge and in being the 'go-to' people who can solve problems when systems fail. These strong relationships and problem-solving skills have helped us serve customers despite our technical limitations.

However, month-end closing takes 15 days of intense manual work, report consolidation is prone to errors, and our team spends nights and weekends catching up during peak periods. The repetitive nature of data entry means we're not leveraging our team's business knowledge and analytical capabilities to drive strategic decisions."

What makes this effective:

• Starts with technical facts, data and metrics
• Acknowledges human strengths, expertise, pride and relationships
• Validates people’s experiences, contributions, and concerns, including implicit issues such as complexity and time pressure
• Builds urgency through business impact
• Respects the past while implying need for improvement

Developing the New Story

Step 1: BA Defines Technical Future

The Business Analyst designs the future solution:

• Integrated ERP with single data entry point
• Automated workflow with built-in validation rules
• Order processing reduced to 45 minutes (average)
• Real-time dashboards for inventory, orders, and financial metrics
• Mobile access for field team to check inventory
• Expected invoice accuracy: 95%+
• Month-end close target: 3 days
• Automated reporting with drill-down capability

Step 2: CM Articulates Human Future

The Change Manager envisions the people experience:

• Finance team transitions from data processors to business analysts
• Shift from repetitive tasks to strategic value-added work
• New skills in data interpretation, forecasting, and trend analysis
• Empowerment to answer customer questions in real-time
• Career development opportunities in analytics
• More interesting, engaging work that showcases business expertise
• Better work-life balance (no more weekend work during close)
• Recognition as strategic business partners, not back-office support

Step 3: Create Integrated New Story

"Six months from now, you'll enter order information once into an intuitive system, and automation handles the rest—validating data, updating inventory, scheduling production, and generating accurate invoices. What used to take four hours now takes 45 minutes, and you're freed from repetitive data entry to focus on work that actually uses your expertise.

When a customer calls asking about their order, you'll have real-time information at your fingertips—inventory status, production schedule, shipping dates—so you can answer immediately instead of saying 'let me check five systems and call you back.' You'll feel empowered and confident in customer conversations.

Instead of being the 'system experts' who know how to work around broken processes, you'll become the strategic advisors that leadership turns to for insights. Your deep understanding of the business—which you've been building for years—will finally be paired with powerful analytical tools. You'll spot trends before they become problems, forecast cash flow with confidence, and make recommendations that directly impact profitability.

Month-end close will shrink from 15 days to 3 days, and reporting that used to take hours of manual Excel work will be automated with drill-down dashboards. You'll spend your time analysing what the numbers mean, not chasing them down. And when you leave work each day—at a reasonable hour—you'll know you made a strategic impact on the business, not just processed transactions.

The problem-solving skills and business knowledge that make you valuable today will make you indispensable tomorrow—you'll just be applying them to more interesting challenges."

What makes this effective:

• Uses second person ("you") for personal connection
• Provides specific, relatable daily scenarios
• Addresses implicit fears (job security, capability) without stating them
• Connects technical capabilities to emotional benefits
• Emphasizes growth and value rather than replacement
• Balances business outcomes with personal advantages
• Paints a vivid picture people can see themselves in

The Gap: Managing the Transition

The BA and CM collaborate on bridging the gap:

BA Contributions:

• Detailed training materials on system functionality
• Process documentation and job aids
• Test scenarios for user acceptance testing
• Performance metrics dashboard
• System access and security setup

CM Contributions:

• Phased communication plan addressing concerns at each stage
• Role-specific training curriculum (not just system training)
• Coaching program pairing experienced staff with change champions
• Quick wins strategy to build confidence early
• Resistance management plan for sceptics
• Celebration milestones to recognize progress
• Adoption metrics tracked weekly

Collaborative Activities:

• Joint town halls where BA explains "what" and CM explains "why"
• Training sessions where BA teaches functionality and CM facilitates practice
• Go-live war room with both technical and adoption support
• Lessons learned sessions analysing both technical and human factors

In the Old and New Story’s template you downloaded in the first article, Old and New Story's, the 'Example' worksheet shows how this case study is summarised using the X4MIS template.

Please read the next article in this sequence, The Art of Asking: Why Questions Matter in Stakeholder Interview