The IT Organizational Change Management (OCM) Communications Team works with WashU IT Service Owners to communicate service changes and promote the value of WashU IT services to the university community. In order to deliver a consistent IT communications style to our customers that aligns with the WashU IT Communications Strategy, OCM should always be engaged for operational IT service communications.
Operational Communications
An operational IT service communication is needed when the following criteria are met:
- A planned production service change is being implemented that impacts customers’ ability to use the service in any of the following ways:
- Changes the user interface
- Changes the service functionality
- The service will be unavailable for any period of time
- Changes to customer support for a service
To request operational IT service communications, complete the Organizational Change Management Services form. To ensure adequate resourcing, submit communication requests for planned changes at least 10 business days prior to the first communication delivery. The communications may be scheduled for outside business hours, however the work to produce said messaging and materials is performed during business hours.
Project Communications
For larger projects releasing a new service or major updates to an existing service, IT service communications may be managed by the project team if the following criteria are met:
- There is a Communications Specialist dedicated to the project managing the larger organizational change management effort
- The project is part of a larger program with a dedicated Communications Specialist that will manage the communication effort
Major Incidents
The OCM Communications Team is available for urgent and off-hours communication needs via the Major Incident process. Off-hours customer communications needs are at the discretion of the Major Incident Manager.
IT Communications Guidelines and Templates
The OCM team should always be engaged for customer communications, and also manage many internal communications. If IT teams are delivering other communications on their own, they need to follow the guidelines in the Box folder below and may utilize the included templates.