Managing in the presence of change is a core competency of any project manager. The complete myth that traditional project management - read PMBOK - tries to control change, to prevent change, or to avoid change all together is nonsense. No credible project manager or project management processes tries to prevent change.
The challenge though is to manage in the presence of change. First let's look at a quote from a thought leader in the requirements business:
It’s inevitable that requirements will change. Business needs evolve, new users or markets are identified, business rules and government regulations are revised, and operating environments change over time. In addition, the business need becomes clearer as the key stakeholders become better educated about what their true needs are -- Karl Wiegers
Now with this stating point how can we manage in the presence of change?
- Establish a baseline for the project as we know it now? What have we committed to do? Without this knowledge, we can't determine the impact of change.
- Capture change requests through some formal method. In other words, no private change requests. It would fantasy to think a change would not impact cost, schedule, or some behavior of the product or service. So assessing the impact of the change is the first step of managing in the presence of change.
- With the change requests in hand, assess the impact on cost, schedule, and product behavior. Why are we doing this change? Does this change disrupt previous work, so we have rework? Does this change impact future work, so we have to replan? If we don't know the consequence of the requested change, then we can't make a decision about what to do next.
- Assess the change in the context of the larger picture. Will this change make the system less reliable? Less robust? Less attractive to the users? Less anything that we don't want to happen? But most of all will this change disrupt the architectural integrity of the system. This is a critical success factor for every type of system - software, hardware, operational. This integrity is the core attribute for making the system sustainable over it's life.
Now that we have a simple process for managing in presence of change. Next we need a process to deliver these activities:
- The Change Control Board is a simple process. This can be formal or it can be very informal. Formal means forms, meetings, signatures. Informal means face to face agreement of what to do next.
- Capture the approved decision in some way. Make sure everyone impacted by the change knows they are impacted by the change. Have them tell you they know they are impacted by the change.
This is the simplified approach to managing in the presence of change.
