Sometimes a member of the project team can incorporate a change without communicating that change to anyone else on the project. While disasters do not always

Question

Sometimes a member of the project team can incorporate a change without communicating that change to anyone else on the project. While disasters do not always happen, is it ever a good idea to allow this to happen? How can it be prevented?

Answer 1

It is never a good idea to allow changes to project scope outside of a change control process. Unapproved changes may result in added costs or could extend scheduled milestone delivery dates, or even impact the scope by adding new requirements to the project.

Proper change control includes a change control board (a subset of personnel from the Project Team) who review requests for changes to the project and evaluate any impacts those changes have to the project scope, schedule or budget. The change requests and their impact must then be presented to the project sponsor and stakeholders for review and approval (or rejection) before any change can be implemented. This formal process includes a regular weekly communication to the project sponsor, stakeholders and entire project team to update everyone on the outcome of the requested changes. This ensures the working teams understand what the changes mean to their work priorities and sets expectations appropriately with all involved. This also keeps a log of changes to the project over time and justifies any modification to the project scope, schedule or budget.