The Role of an Architect in OCM: Supporting Change Without Owning It

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Let’s talk about something that doesn’t always get enough attention in technical circles—Organizational Change Management (OCM). If you’re a Solution Architect working on a ServiceNow implementation, you’re probably not part of the OCM team. But that doesn’t mean you’re not involved in enabling change.

In fact, architects play a key supporting role in OCM. While we’re not the ones driving the change strategy or leading communications, we help shape the solution in a way that makes change possible and sustainable.

Here’s how I think about it: OCM is all about helping people adopt new ways of working. As architects, we design solutions that enable those new ways. That means we need to understand the change impacts, the user personas, and the workflows that are being disrupted or improved. We’re not writing the training materials or preparing the communication plan, but we are making sure the solution is intuitive, aligned with business goals, and ready for adoption.

One of the most valuable things we can do is collaborate with the OCM team early. Share the solution plan, walk through the architecture, and help them understand what’s changing and why. This helps them build better messaging, training, and support plans. It also helps us design with empathy—thinking about how users will experience the change, not just how the system will function.

And because we often have the trust of the client or sponsor(s), we’re in a good position to advocate for OCM—especially when it’s being overlooked or underestimated. A little nudge from the architect can go a long way in making sure change management gets the attention it deserves.

So even though architects aren’t part of the OCM team, we’re definitely part of the change. Architects support OCM by designing solutions that are adoptable, intuitive, and aligned with business change. We don’t lead the change—we enable it.