No small change

That's the whopper of a change management task that the Chicago Police Department -- the second-largest department in the country with more than 16,000 police officers and civilian employees -- faced as it began developing the Grand CIO Enterprise Value Award-winning CLEAR (Citizen Law Enforcement Analysis and ReportingReporting) system, a relational database that sifts through massive amounts of data to give officers the information they need to fight crime. Alles zu Reporting auf CIO.de

In fact, when the case report component of the first CLEAR module, a criminal history records information system that also produces arrest reports for detectives, was rolled out in 1999, it was a disaster. The detectives hated it for a number of reasons: It wasn't user-friendly, the process of getting approval from supervisors proved arduous and involved multiple screens, and detectives weren't given proper training. After a year of listening to detectives' grumbling, managers realized they had to do something.

First, they set about building internal competence in the information services group, and that meant replacing more than half of the management team. "It was a good team, but we needed a different set of skills -- people who could manage a large-scale enterprise, people with business skills, project managers, development directors who could understand the business needs of our users and manage a team that would build out, and understand the enterprise structure we were building," says Ron Huberman, who became assistant deputy superintendent of information and strategic services for the Chicago Police Department in 2001. After revamping his team, Huberman focused on training his technology staff, from entry-level developers all the way up to senior managers. At that point, the information services group was ready to begin full-fledged development of the new system.

They began by sending a team of their best programmers out to the field for six weeks to document all the issues users had with the system. The group came back with 200 specific requests for changes, ranging from implementing an easier approval process to changing the format of how the reports printed. IS leaders also made it a point to glean user input throughout the development process. They instituted JAD (joint application design) sessions, which involved teams made up of management, users and technical staff. They formed focus groups from all ranks to gather input. Teams of officers went out to the 25 districts to field-test new apps and train officers. Having officers -- not civilians -- be the trainers has made a huge difference to the cop on the street.

"There's a certain degree of comfort (with other police officers)," says Sgt. Howard Lodding. He is one of a number of cops from the street who have been brought in to the information and strategic services division as part of the department's change management strategy. A few years ago, there were no officers in the IT shop; now there are 18, and their background in the field helps them design modules in the CLEAR system with users in mind. Their experience also ensures them respect in the field when they train users on the system.