How To Keep A Project Under Control?
Or: What Is The Project Change Control Process ?
One of the most important things a project needs is a clear idea of what the objective is and what this includes.
This is called the scope and it needs a very carefully written description because through the life of the project there will be pressure to adjust this.
Some examples of this might be:
The scope says that 100 staff will get new laptops, but the sales office is recruiting an additional 25 people.
The scope doesn’t say that the old equipment that is being replaced should be removed, but it would be better if it was.
The scope says that the telephones in the office building at Aberdeen will get new phones. There is a warehouse on that site too – are they included.
In this short list we can see three different types of issue:
The business is changing in real-time and other teams have projects in progress alongside your own.
When the scope was written they were focusing on what needed to be implemented and hadn’t thought what to do with the old stuff.
The scope used specific wording, but may not have accurately reflected what was actually intended.
All of these sound like reasonable reasons to adjust the scope, but it’s not as simple as that. These make sense and may be beneficial, but the project will need more hours of work in order to include these – how will this be paid for?
These may also delay the completion date of the project – will that be acceptable?
There may be other considerations to consider:
What if the sales office is not the only office recruiting new people? What if another department has lost some people they won’t be replacing.
What if there’s another project to remove the old equipment?
What if the warehouse is going to be sold off?
There has to be an organised process to consider changes like these and this is generally referred to as the Project Change Process. This is not to be confused with the Systems/Network Change Process for adding and removing equipment.
The Project Change Process is a formal process for considering changes to the project and the process should include a standardised request form that lists all the key factors that need to be considered. These include:
Clear description of the change that is being proposed.
Explanation of why the change is being requested.
Who is requesting the change.
Assessment from the project team regarding consequences of the change and whether it is recommended.
Estimated additional time or cost (or impact to quality) that would be required to accommodate the change.
How the additional costs should be met.
Additional relevant details.
Whether the request is approved or not and who by.
Any further comments by the approver.
The change request form should be circulated among the stakeholders (or a subset if appropriate) for comments prior to approval.
The comments will give you a picture of how likely this is to be approved, but also it may shake out other suggestions that should be included. This may include the time and effort to review what else should be included.
When the change request has been updated with the comments it can go to the appropriate authority for approval.
Bear in mind that sometimes changes may mean reducing work from the scope and not adding to it.
Some proposals are not recommended and are not expected to be approved. These go through the formal change request process so that they are properly documented, are considered and the decision not to go ahead is recorded.
If the change was approved then you should now have everything you need to go ahead including any variations from the original request.
The approval will approve the adjustments to the budget (money and time) and you can go ahead and implement your revised plan.
If the change was rejected then you should also have an explanation of why. Then if the decision is queried later on you have documentation to provide in response. The explanation will also give an indication as to what changes in circumstances would cause this decision to be reconsidered.
Once you have been through this process you will have clarity about whether the suggested changes were approved or not.
Project change requests like these can be a routine part of managing some projects and should provide clarity and direction and not anxiety.