What is Change Process Management

This chapter studies the use of communities of practice in the process of disseminating open source software (OSS) in the University of São Paulo. The change management process included establishing an OSS support service and developing a skills-building training program for its professional IT staff, supplemented by a community of practice supported by an Internet-based discussion list. After using the resource extensively during the early phases of the adoption process, users replaced their participation in this local community by a mostly peripheral involvement in global OSS communities of practice. As a result of growing knowledge and experience with OSS, users’ beliefs and attitudes toward this technology became more favorable. These results, consistent with the theory of planned behavior constructs, provide useful guidance for managing the change process.