change control

The Big 4 Threats.
No matter how carefully planned a project has been, changes will need to be made as it progresses. These will result from both external influences as well as problems that arise within the project environment. The four main sources of change are . . .
Business changes, which may result from: changes in legislation, changes in government policy or changes in business strategy.
Marketing/user changes, which may result from changes in the requirements of the customer, who may be either part of, or outside of, the organization. It is also possible that feedback gained during the review or testing of a product may show that it is inappropriate in some unforeseen way.
Technical changes may be required as emerging technology may offer a better solution to that originally planned. Alternatively, technical problems may prevent a product from working in the way that it was supposed to. High level business decisions may change the basic terms of reference of the project - for example there may be a change to the overall scope of the project.

All of these potential changes need a change control process to control them and their effect on the project. This process, called change control, should ensure that proposed changes are interpreted in terms of their potential effect on project timescales, costs, benefits, quality and personnel. Where there is a proposed alteration to the projects products, change control should: Analyze the change and assess its impact. Then prioritize and plan the necessary work, and finally control its implementation. It is important that no action is taken without the authority of the appropriate level of management.

Raising Concerns.
Any person associated with a project should be able to raise any concern they have at any time. The concern may involve a perceived problem or a suggestion for an
improvement to some area of the work, documentation or project organization. This process can be supported by a standard form - called the project exception report (PER). All project exception reports should be reviewed at regular meetings (a PER Meeting). The meeting should recommend one of the following outcomes shown for each project exception report. A document update request (DUR) will be the preferred option where a product is found not to conform to its product description but where changing the product description is considered preferable to re-working the product in line with its original description. A change request (CR) will be the preferred option where there is a requirement to change the design or features of a product, even though that product currently agrees with its specification or product description. Rejecting a project exception report indicates that, after due consideration, it is not felt to represent a significant concern.

Assessing the Impact.
The change control mechanism shown represents one suggested approach. However, different project environments may wish to tailor it to suit their own particular
requirements. A project exception report can be raised by anyone as a result of a perceived problem or opportunity. These should be assessed at regular meetings, staged for that purpose. The reviewers, who should include all project coordinators, may decide that they require more information before a decision can be taken. If a change request or document update request is raised, then an impact analysis should be performed. This process looks at the knock-on effects of the change on other products, and also the effect if the changes are not implemented. The analysis will ideally be carried out from the business, marketing or user and technical viewpoints - as appropriate.

The purpose of the impact analysis is to arrive at a balanced view of the effect of the proposed change on the projects ability to satisfy its mandate. This will enable project management to decide whether to proceed with the change or not. The appropriate project manager should use the impact analysis to assess the change in terms of its effect on timescales, cost, benefit, quality, personnel and risk and to decide at what level the decision to proceed should be taken. The appropriate project manager should then determine whether or not the proposed change will exceed the permissible tolerance.

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