Change

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Change

Lesson Objectives:

• Change- defined
• Issue & Change control
• Configuration Management
• Issues- definition & types
• PRINCE2 approach to Change
• Configuration Management Strategy
• Configuration Item Records & Product Status Account
• Daily Log
• Issue Register & Issue Report
• Configuration Management Procedure
• Issue & Change Control procedure
• Project Board Decision
• Corporate or Programme Management
• Responsibilities relevant to change theme: responsibilities of Executive, Senior User,
Senior Supplier, Project Manager, Team Manager, Project Assurance & Project Support

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Change

Purpose

• To identify, assess and control any potential and approved changes to the
baseline

How the Change theme supports the principle of management by exception

• Change is bound to occur during the execution of a project. It is not the objective
of any project management authorities to prevent occurrence of change but to
mitigate the adverse impact of undesirable changes. To systematize the process
of management of change, PRINCE2 recommends setting up of a change control
authority. Establishment of baselines through an appropriate configuration
management system for the project’s products is a prerequisite for effective issue
and change control.
Usually, the Project Manager is vested with authority to deal with minor issues
without reference to change authority. However, significant issues shall be
referred to the change authority, major issues to Project Board, critical issues to
corporate or programme management.

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Change

Change authority and change budget are two of the instruments that are placed at
the disposal of project management at various levels in order that the issues need
not be taken up to the top management during day-to-day management of the
project. This process of delegation and escalation is a derivative of management by
exception principle. Thus the Change theme supports the principle of management
by exception.

Issue and change control

• Issue and change control procedures ensure that all issues and changes which
may affect the project’s baselines are identified, assessed and either approved,
rejected or deferred

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Change

Configuration Management

• Technical and administrative activity concerned with the creation, maintenance

and controlled change of configuration throughout the product life

• A Configuration Management item is an entity subject to Configuration

Management

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Change

Issues

• Any relevant event that has happened, was not planned and requires
management action

Types of issue

• Request for change: A proposal for change to a baseline

• Off-specification: Something which should be provided by the project but is not
currently provided (it may be a missing product or a product not fulfilling its
specification)
• Problem/concern: Any other issue that the Project manager needs to resolve or
escalate

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Change

PRINCE2® Approach to Change

Establish Controls

• Defined and established by the Initiating a Project process

• Reviewed and updated towards the end of each management stage by the
Managing a Stage Boundary process
• Management products used to establish and maintain the project’s controls for
issues, changes and configuration management are:
◦ Configuration Management Strategy
◦ Configuration Item Records
◦ Product Status Accounts
◦ Daily Log
◦ Issue Register
◦ Issue Reports

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Change

Configuration Management Strategy

• For effective issue and change control, the configuration management system
should facilitate impact assessment and maintain product baselines
• Corporate or programme policies and processes need to be incorporated into
project’s configuration management strategy
• Should define the way issues are handled
• The Project Manager and Project Board need to agree on:
◦ The scale for prioritizing issues
◦ The scale for rating severity of issues
◦ What severity of issues can be handled at what management level
◦ In projects where the likelihood of changes is high, the Project Board may
choose to delegate authority to a group called Change Authority
◦ The sum of money that the customer and supplier agree to use to fund the cost
of requests for change is called the Change Budget
(For Composition, refer Appendix A, p.241 of the manual.)

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Change

Change Authority

• The Project Board is responsible to review and approve change requests and off-
specification requests. However, when there are likely to be numerous changes in a
project, the Project Board may choose to delegate this authority to another group or
person called change Authority. The Project Manager and/or Project assurance can act
as Change Authority.
• It is not the objective of any project management authorities to prevent occurrence of
change but to mitigate the adverse impact of undesirable changes. To systematize the
process of management of change, PRINCE2 recommends setting up of a change
control authority. Establishment of baselines through an appropriate configuration
management system for the project’s products is a prerequisite for effective issue and
change control.
• Usually, the Project Manager is vested with authority to deal with minor issues without
reference to Change Authority. However, significant issues shall be referred to the
change authority, major issues to Project Board, critical issues to corporate or
programme management.
• Change Authority and change budget are two of the instruments that are placed at the
disposal of project management at various levels in order that the issues need not be
taken up to the top management during day-to-day management of the project.

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Change

Change Budget

• Change budget is the sum of money meant to be spent for effecting approved
changes in a project. The quantum of the change budget is agreed to between the
customer and the supplier. It is prudent to provide for a change budget in a project
where there are likely to be a significant number of change requests.

• The Project Board might choose to impose limits on the amounts spent from out
of the change budget for a single change or during a specific stage.

• The change control budget is documented in the relevant plan.

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Change

Configuration Item Records

• Provide a set of records that describe the status, version and variant of each
configuration item and the relationship between them
(For Composition, refer Appendix A, p.240 of the manual.)

Product Status Account

• Provides information about the state of the products within defined limits
• Useful for the Project Manager to confirm the version numbers of products
(For Composition, refer Appendix A, p.253 of the manual.)

Daily Log
• Used to record problems/concerns that can be handled by the Project Manager
• Used to record required actions not captured in any other PRINCE2 registers or
logs
• Acts like the project diary

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Change

Issue Register

• All issues being handled formally are recorded and maintained in the issue
register
• The issue register is monitored by the Project Manager on a regular basis

Issue Report

• This is a report containing the description, impact assessment and

recommendations for a request for change, off-specification or problem/concern
• It is only created for issues being handled formally
(For Composition, refer page 247 in the PRINCE2 manual.)

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Change

Configuration Management Procedure

These procedures can vary but they typically contain five core activities

• Planning: Decide the level of configuration management required and how to

achieve it

• Identification: Specify and identify all components of the project’s products at

required level of control

• Control: The ability to approve and baseline products to make changes only with
the agreement of appropriate authorities

• Status accounting: The reporting of all current and historical data concerning
each product in the form of Product Status Accounting

• Verification and audit: Reviews and audits to compare actual status against the
authorized state as registered in the configuration item records

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Change

The following figure illustrates the issue and change control procedure:

“©Crown copyright 2009 Reproduced under licence from OGC”

Figure 9.1, ‘Issue and change control procedure’, (Managing Successful Projects with PRINCE2,
page 95)

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Change

Issue and change control procedure

• PRINCE2 has a common approach to dealing with request for change, off-
specifications and problems/concern
◦ Capture
◦ Examine
◦ Propose
◦ Decide
◦ Implement
Capture
• Issues can be formal or informal. The capture step aims to distinguish formal issues
from the informal issues. Informal issues are resolved immediately without entering
them in the Issue Register. Formal issues are entered in the Issue Register for
eventual resolution.
• The advantages of capturing issues as formal issues are that:
◦ The decisions can be made at the appropriate level within the project
management team
◦ The precious time of the Project Board can be saved by delegating the authority
to resolve formal issues to the other management levels.

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Change

◦ Significant issues shall be referred to the change authority, major issues to

Project Board, critical issues to corporate or programme management.

Examine
• After capturing the issues, if required an impact analysis is made to determine
whether the issues will have an impact on Business Case, time, cost, quality, and
scope targets of the project and the project’s overall risk profile.
• Impact analysis must take into account how the interests of business, user, and
supplier are affected by issues.

Propose
• After understanding the possible impacts of the proposed change, alternative
options are considered to respond to the change requests. Only such options
which will have optimal impact on the project’s cost, quality, scope, benefits, and
risk performance targets will be considered for approval.

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Change

Decide

• Most of the decisions will be taken by the Project Manager himself without the
need to refer the same to the Project Board. However, a formal recording of the
issues is made in the Issue Register .
• If the decisions are beyond the delegated authority of the Project Manager, the
matter will be referred to the Project Board through the means of an Issue Report
or an Exception Report.

Implement

• The Project Manager will implement the approved changes if they are within his
delegated authority or will create an Exception Plan for approval by the Project
Board.
• Issue Register is updated and the decision is communicated to the relevant
stakeholders.

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Change

Project Board decision

Request Project Board
Request for change Approve the change
Reject the change
Defer decision
Request more information
Ask for Exception plan (if the request for change cannot be implemented
within the limits delegated to tye change authority)
Off-specification Grant a concession
Instruct that the off-specification be resolved
Defer decision
Request more information
Ask for Exception plan (if the concession cannot be granted within the
limits delegated to the change authority)
Problem/concern Provide guidance
Ask for an Exception Plan

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Change

(Relevant to Practitioner Exam)

Responsibilities relevant to the Change theme

Corporate or programme management

• Provide the corporate or programme strategy for change control, issue resolution
and configuration management

Executive
• Determine the change authority and change budget
• Set the scale for severity ratings for issues
• Set the scale for priority ratings for requests for change and off-specifications
• Respond to requests for advice from the Project Manager
• Make decisions on escalated issues with particular focus on continued business
justification

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Change

Responsibilities relevant to the Change theme (Cont…)

Senior User

• Respond to request for advice from the Project Manager

• Make decisions on escalated issues with particular focus on safeguarding the
expected benefits

Senior Supplier

• Respond to request for advice from the Project Manager

• Make decisions on escalated issues with particular focus on safeguarding the
integrity of the complete solution

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Change

Responsibilities relevant to the Change theme (Cont…)

Project Manager

• Manage the configuration management procedure with assistance from Project

Support
• Manage the issue and change control procedure with assistance from Project
Support
• Create and maintain the Issue Register with assistance from Project Support
• Implement corrective actions

Team Manager

• Implement corrective actions

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Change

Responsibilities relevant to the Change theme (Cont…)

Project Assurance

• Advise on examining and resolving issues

• Monitor stage and project progress against agreed tolerances

Project Support

• Maintain Configuration Item Records

• Produce Product Status Accounts
• Assist the Project Manager to maintain the Issue Register

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Change

In this chapter we have learnt the following:

• Change - defined
• Issue & Change control
• Configuration Management
• Issues - definition & types
• PRINCE2 approach to Change
• Configuration Management Strategy
• Configuration Item Records & Product Status Account
• Daily Log
• Issue Register & Issue Report
• Configuration Management Procedure
• Issue & Change Control procedure
• Project Board Decision
• Corporate or Programme Management
• Responsibilities relevant to change theme: responsibilities of Executive, Senior User,
Senior Supplier, Project Manager, Team Manager, Project Assurance & Project Support

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