Integrated Change Control


Another major area of Project Integration Management is Integrated Change Control. According to the PMBOK, there are four major factors to consider: identifying that a change has occurred or needs to occur, making sure that only approved changes are implemented, reviewing and approving requested changes, and managing the actual changes when they occur. In order to do this, you must be able to delineate the original performance measure baselines. These are the standards you use to measure change. The baselines used to measure performance are written during the project plan development, and they can consist of a variety of sub-plans.

Q.

Part of Project Integration Management is making sure that only ________ changes are implemented.

 

A.

Approved

 

B.

Good

 

C.

Tactical

 

D.

Written


The answer is A. You must be careful to control changes and make sure that only approved changes enter into the new project plan.

Q.

Ensuring that changes to the project are agreed upon, determining that a change has occurred, and managing changes when they occur is the definition of:

 

A.

Project Management

 

B.

Integrated Risk Management

 

C.

Integrated Change Control

 

D.

Scope Management


The answer is C. This is the full definition of Integrated Change Control. Learn it. It is on the exam.

Q.

If you make changes in product scope, these changes should be reflected in your:

 

A.

Project Scope

 

B.

Schedule

 

C.

SOW

 

D.

Quality Baseline


The answer is A. To keep your plan integrated, changes in one area of the project plan that affect other areas must be managed and reflected in those areas.

Q.

Changes should be reflected across other ________ areas.

 

A.

Project

 

B.

Scheduling

 

C.

Standard

 

D.

Knowledge


The answer is D. A change made in one area should not stand alone. Every affected knowledge area should be changed appropriately.

The major input to Integrated Change Control is the project plan. This is the baseline for the project and as such is where all changes will be made. By finishing a comprehensive project plan, you will be building a document that is your change control standard. All changes are requested against a baseline. You project plan is that baseline.

A second input to Integrated Change Control, which will be described more fully in the communication knowledge area, is that of performance reports, stated as work performance information. These reports are your scorecard and tell you how you are doing against the original plan. If variances between the baseline and the information appear on the performance reports, the entire project team should manage them. If there are negative trends in the performance reports, for instance one part of the project is falling further and further behind at every new performance report, you must make the necessary changes to bring performance back in line with the plan. This looks good theoretically but is very difficult to do on most projects. Being aware of the variance reported in performance reports at least gives you a "heads up" concerning the problems that are occurring and ones that may occur in the future.

Finally, change requests are an input into Integrated Change Control. PMBOK states that there are many forms of change requests: oral or written, direct or indirect, externally or internally initiated, and legally mandated or optional. An example of an externally initiated change request may come in the form of a government change in reporting laws that forces you to change when you report your status. This might also be an example of a legally mandated change. Anyone who has worked with HIPAA knows that legally mandated changes can occur at any time.

Q.

The baseline for the project and the standard against which all changes will be measured is the:

 

A.

Scope Statement

 

B.

Charter

 

C.

Project Schedule

 

D.

Project Plan


The answer is D. The project plan is always your overall project baseline.

Q.

"Legally mandated" and "optional" are types of:

 

A.

Legal problems

 

B.

Change requests

 

C.

Scheduling options

 

D.

Management styles


The answer is B. There are several types of change requests, including those that are legally mandated, usually by some form of government intervention, and optional change requests, which are just thatthey are to be done at the option of the project stakeholders.

The tools and techniques for Integrated Change Control include the change control system that you put in place at the beginning of the project. This may include a Change Control Board (CCB) that has agreed-upon members. The members of the CCB are chosen by the sponsor and the project manager. The members evaluate and suggest inclusion or rejection of new changes. We've also discussed several other tools, such as the Technical Review Board (TRB), which may be the de facto Change Control Board. The change control system may also include changes that can be done at certain cost levels. For instance, under such a system, a change costing less than $5,000 may be approved only by the project manager, whereas a change costing more than $5,000 must be approved by a CCB.

Whatever procedures you use to bring about an approved change, the change control system should list as many as will be encountered in the project. This list should be written or recorded electronically and distributed to all the stakeholders so that the project manager can keep changes under his or her control.

Q.

If a change can be approved only by the project manager, this is still part of the:

 

A.

Project Plan

 

B.

Charter

 

C.

Change Control System

 

C.

Scope Statement


The answer is C. Any change requests must go through some sort of review. Any of the organizations or people who conduct the reviews should be listed in the change control system as well as the conditions under which they will be used.

One topic that seems to confuse people taking the exam is configuration management. It is a tool used in Integrated Change Control, and actually the concept is simple. Technical and administrative overviews are done in the configuration management section of Integrated Change Control. Configuration information may include the types of servers, software, and hardware that will be used and how all of these will be linked together. It is the technical part of the project and as such should be written in the project plan. You, as the project manager, need to know what hardware is going to be used on an IT project. This will be managed in the documents that are used for configuration management.

Q.

Which of the following identifies the functional and physical characteristics of a system used on the project?

 

A.

SOW

 

B.

Engineering plans

 

C.

Technical outlines

 

D.

Configuration management


The answer is D. Think of a schematic that explains how a building is going to be wired. This is an example of a document that is used in configuration management.

If a change request occurs and is approved, then additional planning will be necessary. Any modifications to the original plan will require the project manager and team to go through additional planning. This is common. However, you should make sure that all the appropriate people are informed of the change. There may be times when people affected by an approved change request are not in the meetings where the new request is reviewed and rescheduled. You need to inform them of the changes and make sure that a new version of the plan is made available to all appropriate parties so that the changes can be kept under control.

Q.

Additional planning occurs when:

 

A.

Any change request is approved

 

B.

The project manager feels like it

 

C.

The sponsor says something

 

D.

A change is made in the project manager


The answer is A. Any change request that is approved requires a planning sequence in order to include the changes within an approved project plan. It does not matter if the change is small or large; it must be included in a new version of the project plan. Failure to do additional planning because the approved change request seems rather minor will result in serious problems if many small changes occur without being recorded.

The outputs from Integrated Change Control include project plan updates, corrective action, and lessons learned. The updates to the plan must be kept under version control so that any changes to the plan force a new version number to be used. In this way, anyone looking at the changed plan can easily reference the version number. It is a good idea to get team members to give you old versions of the plan so that you will have complete control over which plan is used. Failure to do this can result in a great deal of confusion that can be avoided with strict version control.

Lessons learned should be kept all throughout the project. Some organizations have a lessons learned meeting after the project is finished, and although this is a good idea, the way to make it an excellent idea is to list lessons learned quickly after they occur. That way, you and your project team won't have to rely on your memories of lessons learned from months or years ago.

Ideally, you will have a database for lessons learned. Many organizations do not bother with this, but if you are project managing, you should suggest that a database be kept. It is an excellent tool for future project managers and one that helps explain how a project was managed and issues that arose during all the phases of the project. It is a hard discipline to get used to, but one that is very valuable in the long term.



Passing the PMP Exam. How to Take It and Pass It
Passing the PMP Exam: How to Take It and Pass It: How to Take It and Pass It
ISBN: 0131860070
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2003
Pages: 167
Authors: Rudd McGary

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