Mature Change?

Michael R. Wood is a Business Process Improvement & IT Strategist Independent Consultant. He is creator of the business process-improvement methodology called HELIX and founder of The Natural Intelligence Group, a strategy, process improvement and technology consulting company. He is also a CPA, has served as an Adjunct Professor in Pepperdine's Management MBA program, an Associate Professor at California Lutheran University, and on the boards of numerous professional organizations. Mr. Wood is a sought after presenter of HELIX workshops and seminars in both the U.S. and Europe.

  Communications Management   Requirements Management   Risk Management   Scope Management   Strategy  

If your experiences are like mine, it seems that as soon as a project begins, change follows. Most project managers think of changes to a project to be related to change requests that modify the scope of the deliverables. But changes to projects go far beyond mere scope changes.

Projects are composed of many moving parts and components, and the longer the project time horizon, the more likely one or more of these parts is going to change. And unlike change requests that can go through an approval process, many of the changes that impact projects the most happen without regard to or consideration of its impact upon the project. These changes are event driven and include changes in:

• Management
• Ownership
• Reorganization
• Stakeholders
• Key Operational Personnel
• Funding
• Business Strategies & Objectives
• Third-Party Resources
• Project Team Members
• Technologies
• Economy
• Competitive Landscape
• Regulations
• Disasters and more

A change in any one of the above project components could impact the scope, business case and even the viability of the project. No matter what the source of a material change, it is incumbent upon the project manager to evaluate the impact of the change on the project and it components. Therefore, it is important to have a project change management process in place that …

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