The change request is one of a Project Managers' most effective tools. It is used for requesting, approving, and documenting changes to the Project and is an important piece of the project change management process.

To be successful, Project Managers must ensure that proper change management process controls are in place. A well-defined change control process helps to ensure that the Project remains within approved constraints, scope, budget, and continues to deliver expected benefits.

Change is always happening on Projects. As a Project Manager, you need to stay on top of change to ensure it doesn’t impact your budget, timeline, or scope. You may not be able to keep Project change from happening…but you can manage it.

A change request template is a great tool that can be used to document and track ongoing Project change.

When a stakeholder or team member makes a change request, you’ll want to inspect it to ensure the change is necessary, then assess the impacts. A change request template helps you to formally do this and record your next steps and the sponsor's approval.

Here are a few simple questions to help you and your team determine how to handle the change:

• What is the change? • Why is the change being introduced? • Does the change contribute to our Project goals? • What challenges does the change present?

Once you’ve discussed these questions with your team and stakeholders, you can focus on how the change will impact your Projects scope, timeline, and budget. It’s a good idea to get your team together to talk about the level of effort required by the impending change.

Additional Project Management templates are available in the Maritime Vintage Project Managers Toolkit at:

https://MaritimeVintage.com/