Throughout a project, events may happen that necessitate minor or major changes to the plan. Most changes happen because of errors at the planning stage. Lots of changes to the plan may be an indication of weak management or a sign that the organisation is trying to handle more work than it can.

Changes may also be brought on by external events, changes such as government regulations new technologies or competitors changing or adding new products.

Whatever the changes, it is important to put in place a formal change control process to handle changes in the plan. The system should include formal processes for submitting, evaluating and approving changes to the plan. Change control is needed to manage the potential effects on the project. Whatever change you can make, however small, there will be a knock on effect to the project.

Change control is needed to manage the potential effects on the project. Whatever change you can make, however small, there will be a knock on effect of the project. A knock on the effect of the budget, schedule or scope. Beware of "scope creep"! This is the tendency for scope to increase during the course of the project without propotional increases in time or cost.

Change control is often called configuration management

To ensure you keep changes to projects under control take the following actions:

• Introduce a project for submitting, evaluating and approving changes to the project plan. Define guidelines so the team members know exactly what minor changes are acceptable and what changes need to be put through the change control process.


• Review change requests with the project team. Consider the impact of the changes, identify the causes of change and determine if these impact on other areas of the project.


• Look at other areas and courses of action and determine their effect on the project.


• Approve or reject changes and communicate changes to all concerned.


• Document and track changes, reporting their effect in the project.

Excerpts from The University of Sunderland BA (Honours) Business Management, courtesy Resource Development International (RDI) Jamaica.www.rdijamaica.com