The project lists affected departments, but nobody has asked what the coordinator must do differently on Monday. A role-based change impact assessment compares current work with the proposed work and identifies the preparation each affected role needs. Map the actual task changes before choosing training or communication.
APM's stakeholder competence guidance includes understanding requirements and engagement. The before-and-after card here is an original practical method for turning that understanding into project actions, not a formal assessment standard.
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Start with the work people perform
Choose an important workflow and involve people who do it. Include occasional users, supervisors, backups and recipients, not just the main system users. Ask what they receive, decide, record and pass on today.
Then compare the proposed route. Identify changed information, tools, responsibilities, approval rights and timing. “Uses the new system” is too broad to explain what support a role needs.
Build a role impact card
For each affected role, record:
Current task and intended future task.
What stops, starts or changes.
New information, access or skill required.
Changed authority and escalation route.
Expected transition effort and operational constraints.
Person validating the impact with the role.
Preparation action, owner and evidence of readiness.
Mark unknowns rather than assigning an impact score with no basis. A strong impact on one infrequent but consequential task may matter more than many minor screen changes.
A hypothetical backup-owner gap
A business introduces a new client approval route. The main coordinator attends design sessions and understands the change. Their backup usually covers only during leave and is absent from the stakeholder list.
The role assessment reveals that the backup also needs access, an explanation of the new authority boundary and practice with an incomplete approval. The project assigns these actions before the first leave period under the new arrangement.
A department-wide email would have reached the backup but would not establish their ability to perform the changed work. The impact card shows the difference between being informed and being prepared.
Check burdens and adverse effects
Ask whether the proposed change transfers effort or waiting to another role. A simpler intake step may create extra checking downstream. Record the trade-off and the business owner who can accept or change it.
Keep employment, contractual or regulated role changes with the appropriate qualified owners. This operational assessment does not authorise changes to job terms or professional responsibilities.
Use the assessment to plan action
Choose training, instructions, communication or redesign according to the identified need. Do not prescribe a workshop for every impact. Some roles need a revised decision rule; others need a tool permission or a different handoff.
Review the cards when design or scope changes and check representative roles near transition. The small-team planning guide provides the action structure around the assessment. For the connected task, read Project-to-Operations Handover: What the Receiving Team Needs. To identify who needs to do what differently, discuss your project requirements.
