How to Change Your Project Plan
Embrace the need for change and update your plan today! Here's how.
1. Acknowledge That Change is Good
First, recognize that your perfect project plan is the one that fits your needs right now. As soon as your project changes, your plan has to change to adapt to those new needs. It's a good thing that you are amending your plan to reflect reality. And it's easy to make changes because you've put in so much work already making sure that your plan is in great shape.
2. Identify the Change
Clearly identify the change that is under consideration. It might have originated from a team member, customer or your project sponsor. Make sure that you fully understand what they would like to do. Many businesses use a short change request form to capture the details and why the change is required, but in reality requests for changes arrive at the door of the project manager in many formats. These could include email and discussions.
Record the change request in a central location so that you maintain a record of what has been asked for, who asked for it and what decisions that has led to.
3. Review the Impact
When you have a clear idea about what change is desired you can work out how it will impact your project. There are likely to be impacts across several areas including:
  • Project budget: cost savings or extra expenditure
  • Benefits: the change could bring additional benefits or reduce existing planned benefits
  • Timescales: extra tasks mean more work and changes to key project dates
  • Resources: whether your existing team have the skills to complete the change
  • Risks: the change may result in new risks or the better management of existing risks.
There could also be other reasons to carry out the change such as a legal or regulatory requirement that means it has to happen.
4. Make the Decision
You've now got all the data you need to decide if you want to go ahead with this change. Your choices are:
  • Approve the change to go ahead now
  • Approve the change with some caveats or special conditions, such as 'must be done before end of the month'
  • Defer the change for discussion or implementation later
  • Reject the change.
Whatever the outcome, you'll need to let the person who raised the change know what is happening and why. You'll also have to inform the project team so they know if they are supposed to plan for and do any additional tasks.
5. Update Your Project Documents
Add the new tasks to your project schedule, using the information from Step 3 to build out estimates. Allocate resources to that work.
Update any other documents that need to reflect the change including the change register that you used to record the original request. Your budget is another important file to review and update so that your records are complete.
6. Share Your New Perfect Plan
Make the team aware of the changes and point them to your online project management software to see the latest position. Let everyone know that your plan is perfect again! At least, for now...
Manage your plan like a pro by incorporating changes quickly, even if it does mean revising the project schedule several times. 

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