Case Study: Respond

Scope creep haunts just about every type of project in many different issues. Failure to manage scope creep can result in considerable dysfunctional behavior. The project manager knew that managing change was essential because everything on a project was in flux.

An infrastructure was established, therefore, to manage changes to all baselines related to cost, schedule, and quality. A change board was formed consisting of key stakeholders who met periodically to evaluate change and develop a deployment plan. The project manager also constantly communicated the status of each change on a web site and continuously solicited feedback on the effectiveness of a change on implementation.

Throughout the project, every effort was made to identify and evaluate changes holistically. That was done by encouraging the change board to view changes from the perspective of meeting the vision for the project. Unless absolutely necessary, the project manager avoided the tendency of many project managers to simply look for a silver bullet or add more resources to accommodate a change; more was not always better.

Of course, the project manager realized that not all change would be submitted to the change board. Therefore, through stakeholder participation, criteria were established to determine what went to the change board. The criteria were posted to the web site so everyone could reference them.

The project manager also knew that change had a psychological as well as physical component, e.g., cost impact. By involving people in submitting a change and determining its disposition, their resistance to change was lowered because they felt that they had a "say" on what affected them.

Not all change, of course, comes before a change board. More often, it does not. Instead, one or more individuals frequently handle change. Consequently, the project manager laid the groundwork to enable team members to be more creative by removing obstacles from daily decision making, determining whether or not a change should be submitted to a change board, and supporting those people who took unique approaches to deal with routine issues and problems. By providing the opportunity for people to deal with issues directly, they were able to gain a sense of ownership and accountability.