There are four sections in ChangePlan’s configuration document:

1. General Settings

2. Initiative Settings

3. Org chart Settings

4. Assessment Settings

1. General Settings

1. Company logo
Upload an image file of your organization's logo to be displayed on system-generated emails such as feedback surveys and pulse check emails as well as PDF and PowerPoint exports.

2. Date format
Choose between international (DD/MM/YY) or United States (MM/DD/YY) format.
Please note that across international organizations, it's important that you agree upon which date format you'll use because at the moment we're unable to use different date formats for different users within the same organization.

3. Portfolio

• ChangePlan provides these organizational levels for your initiatives:
1. Enterprise
2. Portfolios
3. Initiatives
You can customize the name of the ‘Portfolio’ level, to match the organization's terminology (e.g., program, focus area, strategic pillar).
Note: If your organization uses additional levels of grouping, such as ‘portfolio’, you can classify initiatives using additional configurable fields described next.

• As additional columns in the Initiatives table

• As dropdown field options when creating a new initiative

• And as filter options for your reporting

2. Initiative Settings

1. Checklist Items
This refer to the list of deliverables that your team has to accomplish for each initiative. By default, we have a list of 10 checklist items. You can reduce or add depending on your organization’s requirements.
Each checklist items can be assigned with the following:

• Start date

• Due date

• Progress percentage

• Estimated time required

• Actual time required

• Owner/s

2. Change Phases
These phases are the stages of the stakeholder change journey. These can be named according to your preference and will appear on the Kanban style Initiative activity page. You can rename the names of these change phases. By default, ChangePlan uses 5 change phases but if you have fewer change phases, then you can set one or more to be blank.



The pulse check is designed to align to whichever change phase that pulse check is designed to check on so it is important to use these phases or at the very least use a similar one.
Note: It is not required for your activities to be attached to a change phase but if you want to utilize the pulse check for that activity, they need to be attached.

3. Impact Assessment
Impact assessment is a key activity of change managers. Users are allowed to configure the list of impact categories. The reason why we have categories of impacts is so that you can create a summary of the kinds of changes created by each initiative. By default, ChangePlan has 5 impact categories.
• Organizational – Affects the organization's structure, culture, and strategy, encompassing changes in leadership, communication, and business objectives.
• People - Influences individuals, including shifts in roles, skills, attitudes, and job satisfaction, as well as potential resistance or support from employees.
• Process - Alters workflows, procedures, and business operations to enhance efficiency, productivity, and overall effectiveness.
• Structural - Modifies the organization's hierarchy, reporting relationships, and distribution of responsibilities, impacting formal structure and governance.
• Technological - Introduces or adapts technologies, systems, or tools, changing how work is conducted, information is managed, and communication is facilitated.
Only the boldened impact name will appear in the dropdown. The description text appears as a hover-over to assist the user. These hover-over text are designed to ensure that all users have the same understanding of the impact categories.
There is no maximum number of impact types.

4. Impact Level Hover-over Text
The users have the ability to create a hover-over text for the impact levels. This is to ensure that all users in the organization have the same understanding of what high impact is, medium impact is, and low impact is.

5. Risk Categories
Some change teams track the specific risks associated with the change management of an initiative. In this section, it displays a table that shows all risks associated with an initiative.





This gives you reporting ability which allows you how each risk was managed carefully.
ChangePlan has 7 risk categories by default. You’re able to change, add, or reduce the categories. There is no minimum or maximum number of risk types.

Activity Settings

• Communication

• Learning

• Other

3. Org Chart Settings

1. Manually enter org chart data: Add top-level groups and nested groups in the org chart tab of the settings area. This is applicable for smaller organizations.

2. Import org chart from Excel: Use the import chart button and the provided template file to import the org chart data.

3. Integrate with HRIS or Active Directory: Set up an integration to automatically synchronize the organizational chart with the organization's HR system.

4. Assessment Settings

1. Pulse-check questions
The readiness questions relate to the stages of your five change phases. You can customize the questions that are sent out in the pulse checks at the global level so that you have a specific question. The reason why we’re only allowing users to customize the questions for each change phase is to create consistency and simplicity across your organization so that you’re able to compare analysis across projects.
ChangePlan also allows its users to track 3 adoption metrics. By default, these are uptake, proficiency, and usage outcome. The users have the ability to tweak the names of these metrics to suit your own approach. You can also adjust the specific questions that are asked in the pulse checks.





The results from these surveys will be automatically gathered and aggregated and can be accessed through the reports section.

2. Change Canvas
Change Canvas is the section in which you can create an overview of your initiative, and it is highly configurable. The different sections within Change Canvas can be populated with text, images, links, and files. These sections can be toggled on or off and renamed to match the organization's needs





You can add a content to each section by clicking the edit button.

3. Change Effort Assessment
ChangePlan includes the ability to conduct a high-level change effort assessment that looks at the overall risk of an initiative. It is designed to help users to right-size the amount of resources that you put into an initiative from a change management perspective.
By default, the first six questions are associated with the scale of change, meaning the magnitude and sizing of the change that is happening due to the initiative.



The next set of questions relate to the potential challenges that the stakeholders may have with absorbing the change.



Each question has five responses on a Likert Scale. The questions as well as the five Likert Scale responses can be customized based on your requirements. However, the system currently does not allow customization of the number of questions and Likert Scale responses.
If your organization currently uses its own assessment, we highly recommend that you map the questions between your existing questions, replacing ChangePlan questions where required or merging questions if necessary.
If you have more than 12 questions we recommend merging some of the questions together and if you have fewer you may choose to include others or you may choose to just include something that.