I personally think this question is rather misguiding and erodes the actual relationship or purpose. There is absolutely no direct linkage between the two and any attempt to relate Change Control and Issue Management would be naïve. If the question was to differentiate between Change Management and Issue Management, we could still find something to talk about, but with Change Control, we are at loss to understand as if it is the Project Change Control or Organizational Change Control. Once you start talking about control, you are further distancing yourself from issue, as change control lives many blocks away from issue management, though you still connect them through a difficult path.
Comparisons, differences, and relationships are interconnected, no two things which have no relation or a very remote relation, can ever be compared or differentiated. I will make this point at the end of discussion.
Let me explain this in easier words by giving you the basic concepts of Risk, Issue/Problem, and Change, where change control is an auxiliary or subordinate process of change itself. Now that we have identified that if there has to be a relationship, or if we want to compare or relate anything, that can only be among these three, namely risk, issue and change.
I will address this in three parts, firstly from Environmental Change perspective, then from Organizational Change perspective (which is an internal iteration of change within environment) and finally from Project Change perspective (which is an internal iteration of change within the organization). So let us first discuss change at environmental level.
ENVIRONMENTAL PERSPECTIVE
Environment in which systems or organizations exist or continuous in nature, generally stable, long-lasting and slow to change. But environments do change overtime and when they do, they have a dire impact on all components (systems or organizations) they may be encompassing, resulting in a slow painful process of change in all components. That is when the stream change its direction, all the components which were otherwise were flowing smoothly along the stream and had defined their strategic directions in accordance with the flow and direction of the environment, are now required to change, to re-align and re-acquaint themselves with the new changed environment.
While an environment is existing, there is generally a very low uncertainty that something will change in the environment, but nevertheless something can and it will, no matter how far apart and how scarce that happening be. So there is a risk of that change in environment, which when realizes will become an environmental issue, which if remains unresolved, will become a problem for all the components and they will have to change in accordance with the environmental change.
ORGANIZATIONAL PERSPECTIVE
An organization is working perfectly well and its Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) are designed, documented and enforced on sound principles. Such an organization may be a state-of-art modern organization which can survive in an environment, generally conducive to its SOPs as they are flowing with the pace to advancement and technology in the same direction, flowing with the stream. Environment may be uncertain whereas SOPs are comparatively definite until and unless they are amended, updated, or changed. The organizational may not have any problem flowing with the stream until and unless an uncertainty (risk) occurs in the environment which will start opposing the flow of organization. That is when it is a matter of concern for the organization and it takes actions to cater for the risk (risk analysis and response), which may cater for the resistance or find an alternate route to flow smoothly, thus causing the organization to keep its momentum. If an such uncertainty (organizational risk) does not get neutralized and results in an occurrence causing obstruction in the flow of the organizational work, that becomes an issue at organizational level.
Every organization in their SOPs, must have a defined issue escalation path which will be adopted to resolve the issue, or if not within the power of a particular level, must be escalated on to the next level of authority. Most issues will get resolved at some level of organization, if the particular actions and powers are defined in the SOPs. Those issues which remain unresolved, will be escalated to the highest level of authority in an organization and will now be treated as a problem, with no apparent solution.
So an issue is a risk which has occurred, issues are escalated to be resolved at appropriate level, and a problem is an unresolved issue. Problems force an organization to change its direction and redefine the new way to flow in current environment, which actually is what you call change management. When you have decided to bring a change, the whole process of how to bring that change, will start and when you have defined, approved and started the process of change, control only comes at that later stage. Now how can issue management be directly related to change control?
PROJECT PERSPECTIVE
Let us now talk about the project perspective. Projects or for that matter, all ingredients organization project management, are the tools for change. Whenever an organization is stuck in a condition where their SOPs are likely to become redundant and may need change according to realignment of organizational strategy and objectives, we undertake a project as a temporary endeavour to meet those specific objectives and requirements.
Projects, inherently are uncertain and more risky, because that is something we are doing for the first time, have never done it exactly the way it will be done in this project. Unlike operations, the environment is much more uncertain and risky. An organization was affected by its environment at slower pace over a longer period of time as everything is generally flowing in the same stream with almost the same speed most of the time. Here, when we do projects, we are trying to swim against the stream, do things against the norms and to invent a new way of doing something which will result in desired change to organizational direction aligning it to environment feasibly as well as with new organizational direction.
As we have shown that projects are more uncertain, there is a high likelihood that we will encounter one uncertainty or other along our way, therefore we need to be much more proactive and need to plan elaborately and thoroughly. Still we cannot be sure what we have overlooked or missed, therefore we are highly flexible and adaptable in our plans, as to amend them on the go (progressive elaboration). We do a thorough risk identification and analysis to the best of our knowledge, but some of the risks will materializes anyways, whether known or unknown. When a risk occurs, the process of project risk management, as far as that risk is concerned, is over. Now it has become a project issue which must be resolved at an appropriate level as defined in the issue escalation path. If unresolved at the highest level of escalation, it is a problem at project level which needs to be resolved, meaning the way we have planned the project to perform will change and we need to move a change request to bring about that change. So the change request procedure has now started. Once a change request is processed, it could be accepted, rejected, pended or even held for further decision. Those change requests which are approved will affect the amendments or updates to the overall project management plan and relevant project documents. This approved change after having affected the relevant documents is communicated to execution process group as if they can make it sure that all and only approved change requests get implemented and all involved are now using the latest version of project management plan for the conduct of remaining portion of the project. The whole process of receiving a change request through ensuring it gets implemented according to the latest version, is all part of the project change control. Again, how can we ever compare a project issue management with project change control? I am completely a loss to understand the relationship.
CONCLUSION
We compare only those processes which can be related directly or sometimes indirectly. I am unable to see even any remote relationship between the Change Control and Issue Management at any level, may it be environmental level, organizational level, or even project level. Moreover, we do see that Environmental Change may give rise to an Organizational Issue, which is an iteration within the Environment, and will start the cycle of Organizational Change. Similarly, an Organizational Change may give rise to a Project Issue, which is an iteration within the Organization, and will start the cycle of Project Change. All these changes are controlled within their respective iteration and I have no way of connecting it with the next higher level. I cannot affect Project Change Control to resolve Project Issues as change is a result of those issues. Well the direct relation could be that if there are no issues, there will be no change and thus no change control, but again I me greatly perturbed by the question that how Project Change Control can ever be related with Issue Management. So to bring sanity to the situation, I can safely say, there is absolutely no relationship between the two and they cannot be differentiated or compared as such.
I got a response on another forum on this question by Syed Shahnawaz Ali:
"Change control: A change is inevitable in the organization because the external environment always keep on changing. It is in the best interest of the org to adopt a change or evolve with the changing environment for its long term survival. Normally we use the term, ' Control' for post go live mechanism. Project Management includes both implementation and control as subsequent phases. 'Change control mechanism' is more like controlling the change that occurred due to a deviation from the plan or expected to deviate but issues are not always change specific or project specific. There can be independent issue with no connection to a change. We do witness many issues on a day to day basis and they are managed priority wise but not all of them are project or change related. Likewise as you mentioned, yes for any major issue a project is planned." Saving Changes...
John TiesoAuthor, Lecturer in Business Management| The Catholic University of America, Busch School of Business & EconomicsArlington, Va, United States
Let's look at this from a slightly different perspective. These are both processes, which dovetail to each other. Change control, as a process, provides the means and procedures for effecting changes desired during the course of the project.
I see issue management is a different lens. Here, we are concerned with the practices of maintaining scope, encouraging people to remain in focus on what is supposed to be developed and delivered, and discouraging 'free thought' to the extent that these ideas cause confusion, distraction, or delay.
It is not that clarity of thought during a project is discouraged; rather, it is the tendency of people facing inhibitors to solutions simply finding 'a way around', or even a new direction, rather than think through the correct solution. That involves customers, stakeholders, and team members. All have to be encouraged, through management action, to 'keep to the script' on development, and not wander aimlessly, delaying or downing a project. Saving Changes...
If you consider both as individual processes, I unfortunately disagree with you. It is because we can't limit any interactive and iterative characteristics of processes in project management merely due to distinguished different features between processes. Whether or not we are able to distinguish from one another and whether we can't clearly see the relations with one another, if any updates from any process can influence the deliverables of other processes or even processes themselves, we can't deny there must be relationships or interactions. This might not be limited to only both of change control and issue management but applicable to all processes in project management.
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1 reply by John Tieso
May 23, 2017 8:23 AM
John Tieso
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Great response. There are seldom situations, at least in my view, which do not have inter-relationships, and all-too-often, risks associated with them in not judiciously applied. As i mentioned earlier, you can see these in many mways, but they do impact each other and should be assessed together as they are needed.
Saving Changes...
Lonnie PacelliAuthor & President| ProjectManagementAdvisor.comBellevue, Wa, United States
Change control is used when there is a requested change which impacts baseline cost, schedule or scope. Issue management is addressing project issues which if unresolved can result in a baseline change. Resolved issues typically mean the issue can be addressed without a baseline change. Saving Changes...
John TiesoAuthor, Lecturer in Business Management| The Catholic University of America, Busch School of Business & EconomicsArlington, Va, United States
May 22, 2017 10:51 AM
Replying to Sungjoon Park
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If you consider both as individual processes, I unfortunately disagree with you. It is because we can't limit any interactive and iterative characteristics of processes in project management merely due to distinguished different features between processes. Whether or not we are able to distinguish from one another and whether we can't clearly see the relations with one another, if any updates from any process can influence the deliverables of other processes or even processes themselves, we can't deny there must be relationships or interactions. This might not be limited to only both of change control and issue management but applicable to all processes in project management.
Great response. There are seldom situations, at least in my view, which do not have inter-relationships, and all-too-often, risks associated with them in not judiciously applied. As i mentioned earlier, you can see these in many mways, but they do impact each other and should be assessed together as they are needed. Saving Changes...
