Chapter 9: Revising the Project Plan

Overview

Have you ever taken a wrong turn ? One minute you re cruising along listening to your favorite radio station, windows open , and you re enjoying a perfect summer drive. The next thing you know, you re on I-90 when you should really be on I-94. You ve cruised along for 20 minutes and now you re frantic. Not only are you now 20 minutes out of your way, you ve got to drive those 20 minutes again in the opposite direction just to get back to where you should have been to start with. So what do you do? Forget the radio station, put the windows up, and grit your teeth as you pretend you meant to screw up all along.

IT project management can be like that unfortunate summer drive. No matter how much research you do, how many times you test a process, or how detailed your plan, no one can predict the future. Project managers can, and often do, start in one direction and, by chance or design, realize they ve been going in the wrong direction. In some instances, they discover a better method or product in the early stages of the implementation. In others, a request from management or the customers to change the deliverables of the product can alter a project s direction. And still in some cases, the cause for change rests on the shoulders of the project manager.

In this chapter, you ll examine the process a project manager can use to decide if a change in a project is feasible ”and which system to put in place to review, approve, or decline change requests . You ll also see how the project manager can incorporate change, react to difficult situations, and try to keep her project, and her wits, together. Pull the car over, turn off the radio; it s time to get to work.