And now, for something completely different… Change Management

I wanted to interject this subject because it’s important in all of project management.

One of the things Project Managers do is create artifacts.  Lots of them.  Documents, charts, spreadsheets, diagrams…. The more mature the project management function is at a company, the more artifacts compose a project.

Now, that is not to say that every project demands the same level of detail in each of these artifacts – there may not be very much to say in, for example, the Project Charter.  But there needs to be a Project Charter.  (“What’s a Project Charter?” you might ask.  It is essentially the contract dictating what the project will deliver, in summary form.  More on this in another article.)  And the stakeholders all need to contribute to it and sign off on it in some fashion.

Each one of them, no matter how great or small, is a living document.  We project managers don’t create artifacts just to check a box.  (Yeah, there’s a box and we check it, but that’s not all we do.)  Every artifact should be revisited during the course of the project, and updated if necessary.

HOWEVER.

While everything on a project is subject to change – whether that be the budget, the scope, the timeline, the risks, the communications plans (to name a few) – none of them can be changed willy-nilly.  Every change must be reviewed and approved according to an agreed-upon process.  This is referred to as the Change Management Process.

What does that look like?  Well, that depends.  While there are many standard models for change management processes, each project team should decide what that process looks like for that project.  That gets captured in the Change Management Plan.

Surely not everything….

Every aspect of the project should be covered in the Change Management Plan.  Examples include the usual suspects – scope, budget, and timeline – but also the Risk Register, the Charter, the Work Breakdown Structure, the Communication Plan, etc.  Details can vary, but generally the change management process addresses:

• Who can initiate a change?
• Who owns the change?
• Who approves the change?
• Who implements the change?

The “owner” is the person responsible for taking the change through the process.  This can be the project manager, but in some cases the change owner might be a technical or business resource – someone very familiar with the subject, and able to best assess the impact of a given change. 

The Change Management Plan should describe who can approve each type of change.  The Executive Sponsor or the Sponsor is ultimately the final authority – although there may be a Steering Committee or Board that gives direction on this as well.  

Finally, the Change Management Plan should also describe who is responsible for implementing a change – whether it’s the PM, a technical resource, etc.  The PM is then responsible for enforcing accountability – making sure that a change is implemented and promulgated.

Caveat Nummularius

I do want to point out that while there needs to be structure around the change process, it’s just as important to be realistic and pragmatic.  Projects should not get bogged down in the change process – this means pushing responsibility as far down the food chain as possible, empowering people closer to the work to approve and implement changes.  To get there, it’s necessary to include team members from all levels of the project into the development of the Change Management Plan, so they know what needs to be done and what proper governance looks like.  We need to trust in the capability of the team, giving them responsibility and accountability for changes in their wheelhouse.