Project Change Requests – 5 Things Project Managers Always Listen For

When it comes to making choices, there will be times when we want changes after making an initial decision. Maybe we’re returning a bench that didn’t work out in an entryway, or extending a hotel stay because flights were canceled. Whatever the reason may be, our needs changed. In the case of projects in the workplace, Project Sponsors may encounter new reasons to make changes in their project. How are Project Managers reviewing the situation when they receive project change requests? 

Let’s use an example where a preference center project to capture customer subscriptions shifted from out of the box capabilities to needing a custom landing page experience.

Once the project proposal is reviewed and approved, it’s time to move on to the project kickoff and into detailed requirements gathering. As the requirements working sessions begin, a couple new business requirements start popping up. The Project Sponsors would like a field where a customer is required to at least select one item in a field. Also, if a returning customer returns to the page, a few fields are to be pre-populated to retain their previous page visit data.

As the requirements session winds down, it’s apparent that the project change requests are going to impact many areas of the project: scope, budget, and schedule. How?

Scope expanded from out of the box to custom. Budget would increase, because the changes require work from another resource team with the appropriate technical skillset. Schedule also increases due to added tasks, which will also require more time for testing due to the dynamic experience.

Before the Project Team continues with the project change requests, the Project Manager reviews and gains approval from the Project Sponsors. The Project Manager then builds out the project plan including tasks, resource assignments, and a timeline. Gaining approval before the build phase saves the Project Team time and provides alignment with its Project Sponsors. 

In the above example, the project change requests occurred up front in the project and during a requirements working session. There are many other times when requested changes could pop up as the project progresses. It could be during a status call, in an email, or during project document reviews.

In addition to the planning phase of a project, here are five items Project Managers listen for any project change requests in build, test, and even at or after deployment.

New scope from the approved project proposal

Let’s say during User Acceptance Testing, the Project Sponsors think of a new customer experience they’d like to consider. After further discussion, the Project Manager learns the project change requests are not required for their initial project deployment. Rather they’ll pick it up as a Phase 2 effort, starting over again with requirements, build, and test after Phase 1’s deployment.

Verbal scope identified different from written proposal

There may also be times where a verbal agreement was made; however, it didn’t make its way into the written project proposal. At that time, the Project Manager will validate with the Project Sponsors if indeed the scope is included or not. If it matches current scope, the Project Team will continue as is. If it is considered a new scope item, then the cycle starts again with the project change requests by going through requirements gathering and so on.

Budget changes

When project budgets are approved, we often forget to include cost as an assumption or add to our risk management logs – project change requests can come up here as well. There are times where budgets get cut and nowadays it’s not uncommon to see budget shifts between departments within organizations. If that is the case, then the Project Manager works with their Project Sponsors to understand what scope will get reduced or deferred until the budget is available again, which requires more forecasting discussions.

Significant changes during build and test

In project build and test phases, it’s expected to see some small fixes to be made. The Project Manager continues to monitor progress of the tasks including time and cost spent. If it’s found that some project change requests during these phases are significant, they’ll raise any issues with the Project Sponsors to assess its business importance to utilize existing budget and resources, as well as any schedule impacts. For example if the quality is at risk, it will require a project stoppage by the Project Team until the next steps are identified by the Project Manager and approved by the Project Sponsors.

Project timeline changes

Often it’s easy to crunch a project schedule for small project change requests. So what kind of project timeline changes require an assessment of scope and budget, should the project schedule change? Project Sponsors may share that one of their major dependencies on another department is delayed due to business priorities. This either means the project will be paused or the timeline is to consider a new project deployment date. If the latter, then the Project Manager is considering how many more Project Team working sessions are needed, especially for example any final sweeps of files to look for any deltas are needed. This includes any additional status calls for their internal and external teams.

At the end of the day, it’s on the Project Manager to help assess any impacts to the project change requests and review with their Project Team and Project Sponsors. If you notice your Project Manager is not present when a change comes up, let them know. They’ll put your questions and assumptions to ease on scope, budget, and schedule without compromising quality.

Want help with effectively managing project change requests? Relationship One is here to help, contact us today!

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