Question

Assignment Details

A colleague of yours is struggling to handle change requests throughout their project life cycle, and now his project is falling apart. He has come to you for advice on best practices.

• Share with your colleague why managing change requests is critical to the project’s success.
• Discuss the most effective process for handling change requests, including how different technologies can be utilized.

Discussion Board Reminders:

Answer 1

Answer 1:- Changes are inevitable in any project and it is important to manage the change requests appropriately. The activity of change management can play a significant role in this regard and it mainly deals with the management of various requests for change so that the expected outcomes can be obtained. The changes will also result in the change of operating styles and management culture of the organization.

When the project manager is able to deal with the change requests effectively, it will be easy for her to manage the various aspects of the projects as per the new or modified deadlines or parameters within which the project has to be executed.

Effective change management is also useful in making adjustments in the resource allocations, changing the deadlines and also to make the project team members to understand their new accountabilities and responsibilities This is quite important as it will keep the team members motivated, committed and be more open to accept the new changes and modify their performance according to new set of goals.

Answer 2:- In order to manage the change request effectively, the following steps can be followed:-

Request the supporting material:- It is always advisable to ask the requesting person to specify the expected change as precisely as possible, in fact, the written change request is always advisable. The change request must include the reason behind the request and the expected advantages resulting from the change requests.

Determination of the scope of the change request:- Once the change request is obtained, now the project manager has to evaluate whether the project change requests can be incorporated effectively or not.

Setting the priority of the change request:- The manager has to determine the urgency of the change request i.e. whether the change request is must implement, or it is important or nice to have.

Evaluate the change request:- This is done in order to find out whether it is feasible to implement the requested change or not. If the change is actionable then all the project documents are required to be modified.

Delegation of new resources and authorities:- The last step will be to allocate the new or revised resources to the different project teams and if there is also a need to change the authorities and responsibilities of the team members, it has to be done.