Starting a Project

It is important to have a written record of changes to the scope of a project. On the least complex projects, an e-mail message can be sufficient, but on larger projects a standard form is normally used. The following steps are paraphrased by Tom Mochal, Tom Mochal, and Jeff Mochal, Lessons in Project Management. and they have the necessary components of a change documentation process:

• Inform project stakeholders of the change request process.
• Require that the change request is made in writing, including the business value of the change to the project.
• Enter the request in the scope change log.
• Estimate the time needed to evaluate the change. If the evaluation process is time consuming and would affect activity completion dates by diverting management resources, get approval from the project sponsor to evaluate the change request. If the evaluation is not approved, record the decision in the scope change log.
• Evaluate the change and its impact on the schedule and budget if the evaluation is approved.
• Present the change request to the project sponsor for approval. Record the decision in the scope change log with the recommended course of action.
• Distribute the scope change log periodically to team members so they know what changes are being considered and what happened to those that were not approved or evaluated.
• If the change is approved, update the project charter or other initiation documents.
• Update the work plan.
• Distribute the revised work plan to stakeholders and team members.