Change Management Cost and Quality Impacts

Question: Discuss about theChange Managementfor Cost and Quality Impacts. Answer: Managing Project Changes Change Management is an essential component of the overall project management and must be included in the project activities to ensure that the changes that occur during the project life cycle are managed well. It is a necessary component as there are a number of benefits that are added up with a dedicated process and plan for the management of changes. The process allows the manager and the leadership to correctly distinguish between the changes that must be accepted and the ones that must not be accepted. It also allows the manager to predict a few changes that will occur in terms of the resistance that may be shown by the employees and the users and likewise. Change management makes sure that the already predicted changes have a management strategy mapped with the same so that the handling of the changes becomes easier. The objective behind a particular change that is requested is also made clear with the change management process. The changes can have a negative impact on the pro ject resources along with the schedule and budget which is prevented by a dedicated plan and method for the management of the changes and the implementation of the same. There are a number of tools and techniques that are available in the present era to make the process of change management easy and simple to execute. The project primarily has three variables as cost, budget and resources. Microsoft Project is one such tool that makes the management of changes non-complex. It allows the users to create a list of tasks for the particular project along with their schedule, resources, costs, dependencies and many such components. Any alterations that are made by the changes can be viewed from this tool that which auto-calculate the change in associated entities such as cost and time. The tool also presents the timeline of the project and allows the managers to have an overview of the entire activities to handle and manage the changes in a better manner (Hegde, 2016). Change Management Plan Time, Cost and Quality Impacts The changes can have a negative impact on the time, cost and quality as the increased number of changes would require the utilization of all of these three components. The changes may result in schedule overrun, budget overrun or associated risks. The impact can be controlled by creating a change management plan for all the changes that are requested from a particular system and handling the changes in a step by step manner. The technique and methods should include the following phases for change management as: Preparing for the changes Handling and management of the changes Reinforcement of the changes Change management strategy and methods should be in place to make sure that the impact on the project variables is not negative. Handling Changes Requests and Risks Every change that is demanded from a system must be documented in the form of a change request which must be approved by the senior management and the client as well. The request must answer the need for the change, scope associated with the change and all the required details. The process would make sure that the identification of the required changes is done correctly and only the necessary change requests go through. Two major risks that are associated with the changes are schedule overrun and budget overrun. These may be handled by risk management process and plan by having a treatment strategy as risk mitigation already in place to reduce these risks and their impacts. Also, there must be constant monitoring by the Project Manager to have minimal changes (Andrade, 2016). Change Request Form Project Title: The Chunnel Project Date Prepared: 29th October 2016 Person Requesting Change: A Change Number: 1 Category of Change: Requirements Detailed Description of Proposed Change: The connection that is being made between England and France shall have the additional lights installed on the routes for better visibility Justification for Proposed Change: The change would allow the commuters to have enhanced visibility at any time of the day and would make it easy for them to drive Impacts of Change Scope: Increases Description: The change would require procurement of the lights on a large scale along with activities around design and installation of these lights Grade: Increases Description: The change would require procurement of the lights on a large scale along with activities around design and installation of these lights Requirements: Increases Description: There will be additional requirements associated with procurement and negotiations with the suppliers along with the design, installation, connections and implementation of the change. Cost: Increases Description: The procurement of lights would include considerable costs which would lead to increased costs as compared to the ones determined earlier. Schedule: Increases Description: The change would require increased effort and activities to be covered which would result in increased requirement of time to complete the same Stakeholder Impact: Medium Risk Description: There may be scenarios of schedule and budget overrun Project Documents: Updated project plan, implementation plan Disposition: Approve Justification: The change that is requested is justified as the lights will allow the commuters with the ability to commute with ease and lesser risks Change Control Board Signatures Name Role Signatures AB Project Sponsor AB BJ Project Board BJ Date: 29th October 2016 Scope Creep Scope creep refers to a situation in which there are huge numbers of changes that are associated with a project that result in continuous growth of the project scope. It may emerge as an extremely severe risk for the project as their will be enhanced use of project resources required with constant changes in the scope. Also, the same may negatively impact the productivity shown by the employees associated with the project. The same can be avoided by constant review and monitoring of the project activities and communication with the client so that the requirements are correctly understood. References Andrade, P. (2016). Change Management: Implementation and Benefits of the Change Control in the Information Technology Environment. Retrieved 28 October 2016, from https://arxiv.org/ftp/arxiv/papers/1603/1603.03110.pdf Hegde, A. (2016). What is Change Management. Retrieved 28 October 2016, from https://www.andrewneang.com/research/2008-GTP/ChangeManagement_v5.pdf Heldman, K. (2013). PMP Project Management Professional Exam Study Guide (7th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Wiley. Project Management Institute. (2013). A guide to the project management body of knowledge (PMBOK Guide) (5th ed.). Newtown Square, Pennsylvania: Project Management Institute. Wysocki, R. K. (2014). Effective Project Management: Traditional, Agile, Extreme (7th ed.). Indianapolis, IN: Wiley.