Project life cycles are subject to change. If they aren’t managed well, they can lead to project failure. The project changes must be evaluated, assessed, and implemented using a series of planned and structured activities. This is the scope for change management, an important aspect in project management. There are eight major steps to change management in a project. We will review each of these eight steps and then summarize them in four steps. This will make it easier for you to remember and to learn.
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What are the 8 Steps to Change Management?
Let’s now go over the 8 steps of change management one-by-one.
Prevent the root causes of changes
The prevention of changes is the first step in change management. Too many changes can lead to poor planning, management, coordination, and demotivation among project team members. In order to eliminate the root causes of changes in a project, change management must be done.
Identify the change
Despite all your efforts to prevent changes, it is almost inevitable that your project will be subject to them. Once the change has been accepted, it must be identified. This includes identifying the cause, the goal, and the person initiating the change.
Assess the impact:
Once the change has been identified, the changes’ impacts are assessed in change management. These impacts can have an impact on the project’s product and project performance. An example: a change in a project requirement might result in additional features for the final product. It might cost $100,000 more and take 2 months to develop. These types of impacts should be considered when managing change.
Send the change request:
The change request must be submitted after the change impact analysis has been completed. Once the impact analysis and identification are complete, the change request can be submitted. In reality, in change management, the submission of a change request authorizes a change.
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The integrated change control process is part of the project monitoring and controlling phase of the project integration management. This process, which takes place after a change request is made officially, ensures that the change is properly analysed, evaluated, and, if approved, implemented.
There are four steps to a comprehensive change control process.
Assess the change: We analyze the origin, scope and main purpose of the change request. The change’s impact is assessed.
Identify the options available for implementing the change. There are many alternatives to implementing a change request. These alternatives include options from a technical and project management perspective. This is because the best implementation option will have the least impact on the project.
Accept or reject the change: The change control board analyzes the impact of the change and offers options for implementing the change. Changes are either approved or rejected based on the evaluation by the change control board. Only approved change requests will be implemented.
In the change control system, record the change