Project Change Management
Owners, designers, and construction contractors are all aware that introduction of changes into a project can lead to problems and hinder project success. Changes may interrupt the flow of work, create delays, cause schedules to slip and inflate costs, which in turn may generate claims and even costly litigation.
CII established the Project Change Management Research Team to find solutions to or, preferably, the means of avoiding such problems. The team guided an extensive research effort and is now ready to present its findings to the industry.
The team’s research focused on determining the nature and origin of problems related to changes. The relationship to timing of changes throughout the project life cycle was established. The elements of a project that are subject to change were categorized. As a result of its investigation, the research team concluded that it would provide three primary deliverables to the industry: (1) a comprehensive view of agreements and changes; (2) a set of recommended best practices for the effective management of change; and (3) a prototype change management system, reflecting the means of implementing research team findings.
This publication provides these deliverables, beginning with a description of a typical project life cycle, followed by a discussion of the dynamics of change management. Next, the principles of effective change management that were identified by the research team are presented, followed by a discussion of how metrics may be employed as part of the management process. Recommended practices are then presented, and are organized on the basis of each of the project phases. Finally, the prototype change management system is included as an appendix.
Highlighting the principles of effective change management, they are: promote a balanced change culture, recognize change (when it occurs), evaluate change, implement change, and continuously improve from lessons learned.
The research team believes that significant savings in total installed costs of construction projects are achievable by improving management of changes. Owners and contractors can profit from increased efficiency. Schedules can be made more reliable, and end-user satisfaction can be enhanced. The industry can benefit immediately and significantly by implementing the recommendations presented here.
The five elements of a project that are subject to change and that will affect the change management process are:
- Project scope
- Project organization
- Work execution methods
- Control methods
- Contracts and risk allocation
(SP43-1, p. 7)
Business Planning Phase
- Establish a baseline scope early in this phase in order to identify and recognize change.
- Develop an initial overview of a contracting strategy that ties to the baseline documents for scope, schedule, and cost.
- Develop agreements that clearly establish project scope, schedule, and cost.
- Establish a tolerance for changes since it is comparatively inexpensive to incorporate changes this early in a project.
- Ensure that the increasingly detailed scope that is being developed continues to reflect the business and planning objectives.
- Ensure that experienced and knowledgeable personnel are involved in evaluating any proposed changes to make sure changes are beneficial and not detrimental.
Detailed design is the phase that is most susceptible to changes. The effect of changes becomes increasingly more costly and disruptive as the schedule elapses.
- Ensure change management procedures are part of the project execution plan and are communicated to and understood by all parties.
- A benchmark project scope should be established and frozen, with changes managed against this base scope.
Changes in construction can have a significant impact on cost and schedule.
- Owner must ensure the base scope of work is well defined and must be willing to freeze the scope to establish a benchmark.
- Establish a change management process early and integrate new organizations, including those that are downstream in the construction process, to aid in the timely identification of changes.
- Reconfirm the business plan and be aware of any changing market conditions that require a change in scope.
- Ensure that responsibilities at time of turnover are clearly documented and understood.
This prototype change management system (CMS) is intended to be a tool to assist project managers to manage change more effectively. The prototype CMS is presented in outline and flow chart format.
