Handling project changes

Change is inevitable in projects. Sometimes, the change is minimal and doesn’t impact your project. In other cases, the change requires adjustments to your project’s scope, plan, and budget.

Staying on top of these changes helps keep the project on track and prevents any negative impacts. It’s nearly impossible to stop change from happening, but you can manage it with a structured change request process.

What are change requests?

A change request is a formal proposal to modify a project’s agreed-upon scope, timeline, cost, or other elements between the performing team and stakeholders.

Change requests are submitted when issues arise during project execution. Project issues may arise when project scope, cost, schedule, or quality are modified.

Other change requests cover the needed preventive or corrective actions to reduce future risks.

What is change request management?

The needs of a project might change despite the best of plans. Such changes need to be approved and executed.

Change request management in projects refers to a process or mechanism set up for processing any changes that arise during the course of a project.

Project managers may need to adjust the plan, tasks, budget, timelines, or even team members as the projects move along. Project leads, or stakeholders might also propose changes to mitigate new risks or issues along the way of the project.

Standardized change request process

Project team members need to raise change requests to the relevant stakeholders and/or senior management for approval and delegation.

Efficient project teams ensure they have a standardized process to draft, record, approve, and address such change requests.

For more insights on change request management, check out the Project Management Institute’s take on the topic.

How to manage change requests

Any project stakeholder may request a change. This includes both internal and external teams. These requests may be optional or required by contract.

Initiated change requests are submitted to the Project/Organizational Change Control Board (CCB).

Some organizations and teams also have change request forms and templates.

Evaluating changes with the CCB

A Change Control Board (CCB) is a formally chartered group responsible for reviewing, evaluating, approving, deferring, or rejecting project changes. They are also responsible for recording and communicating such decisions.

Change control meetings allow the CCB to review and act on change requests. During these meetings, they determine whether changes should be approved, rejected, or deferred.

See what Microsoft Support has to say on “How to evaluate project change requests.”

3 Types of change requests in projects

Change requests can vary based on the nature of the issue. Here are the three main types of change requests commonly encountered in projects:

1. Corrective actions – Corrective actions are process changes that realign current performance with the plan.
2. Preventive actions – Preventive actions are process improvements that focus on future performance.
3. Defect repairs – Defect repair actions modify a nonconforming product or component.

Approved change requests are an output of the Change Control Review Meeting. They include any requests reviewed and approved for implementation by the project request manager or by the change control board (CCB) when applicable.

The passed and recommended change request may be a corrective action, a preventive action, or a defect repair. Approved change requests are scheduled and implemented by the project team.

What is in a change request form?

A change request form captures essential details to ensure proper tracking and evaluation of proposed changes. It provides the information needed to assess the change’s impact and make informed decisions.

• Change number – Change request number for tracking.
• Requestor – The user who requested the change.
• Category – The category of the change.
• Short description – A synopsis of the change request.
• Detailed description – Explain the problem.
• Recommendations – Solution for the problem.
• Priority – To define how quickly this change should be approved and implemented.
• Impact – To measure the effect of a change on the project aspects or Details of Scope Impact, Quality Impact, Requirements Impact, Cost Impact, Schedule Impact, and Process/Documents Impact.
• Risk – The risk level for the change. The risk of a change. High, Medium, or Low is a possible option.
• Justification for proposed change – Indicate the reason for the change.
• State – The state of the change request. It can include New, Under Review, Approved, Deferred, or Rejected.
• Disposition – Explanation by CCB for approved, deferred, or rejected changes.

These forms are part of the project management documents used to keep projects aligned with their scope and objectives.

Simplify your project change management with BrightWork

BrightWork 365 offers a powerful project management solution that helps teams manage projects with ease and efficiency. Managing change requests is a key part of project management.

A structured process and templates ensure changes are evaluated, approved, and implemented effectively, which reduces negative impacts and keeps the project on track.