Project Change Management

It impossible to avoid changes through out the software development projects, and same applies to almost all IT projects, scope usually change throughout the project lifecycle due to uncertainties, ambiguities and / or unclear requirements. Hu & Liu stated, “changes in the project has become the most prominent source of risk in the development of the project” (Hu & Liu, 2008), that because changes in the scope has a direct impact on time, quality and cost of the project. Another catastrophic impact of requirement and scope change is that it is one of the main reasons for project failures, based on a survey conducted in 2004 that analyzed 13,522 completed projects, results showed only 29% success, 18 % failed projects and 53% questioned projects. The projects were identified as questioned due to increase in project cost or time to be able to complete the project, the main reason behind additional cost and exceed in project time, was requirement changes through out software development lifecycle (Hu & Liu, 2008).

Due to the nature of IT projects, almost all of them require acquiring services and products from outside source (Schwalbe, 2010, p.462). In such cases, project procurement management that includes processes to control and manage products and services acquired from external companies becomes a must; those are planning, conducting, administering and closing procurements (Schwalbe, 2010, p. 465,467). There are tools and techniques that help in procurement planning, those should be conducted prior to getting external source help; it should start with proper analysis such as make-or-buy, and external judgment either by staff or external organizations. Make-or-buy analysis is important because it helps decision makers to justify their decision based on organization’s financial interests. Contracts should be planned to the best interest of the organization, contract types vary and their risk to the buyer vary as well, those should be taken into consideration to avoid never ending projects and project failures. As well and part of procurement planning, project scope of work, request for proposal and request for quotation should be properly documented with experts help, and its important to have a clear source selection criteria that is balanced, specific and objective.

Conducting procurement starts with getting sellers responses, selecting them and contract awarding. It is important to note that technical criteria shouldn’t be given a higher weight than cost or management criteria (Schwalbe, 2010, p. 478). Administering procurement involves ”managing relationships with sellers, monitoring contract performance, and making changes as needed” (Schwalbe, 2010, p. 484). Effective change control systems should exist to identify review and approve changes; the following suggestions could help ensure adequate change control on projects that involve outside contracts (Schwalbe, 2010):

1) Any change to part of the project and regardless of its size, should be reviewed, approved and documented in the same way and by the same people who conducted those actions. Another important control is to perform impact analysis for any change.

2) Documentation in writing for all changes, especially with outside contractors those documents could be referred to incase of disputes. In such cases even verbal or telephone conversation could become useful.

In closing procurement, its important to perform procurement audits, to identify lessons learned (Schwalbe, 2010, p.481).

“The challenge to the project manager, then, is how to partner with procurement in a way that positively impacts the project life cycle” (Rinkavage, , Bennis, ,& Gault, 2006). Bridging the gap between project management and procurement is important for project success; every role has its own importance in the project lifecycle, project manager should increase his knowledge in this area to be able to manage external contract effectively.

Reference:

Hu & Liu, (2008), ‘IT project change management’, Computer Science and Computational Technology, 2008. ISCSCT '08. International Symposium, ISBN: 978-1-4244-3746-7, pp. 417-420, [Online]. Available form: 10.1109/ISCSCT.2008.224

Rinkavage, E, Bennis, P, & Gault, C 2006, 'Project Management: Partnering With Procurement. (cover story)', Government Procurement, 14, 2, pp. 6-8, Business Source Premier, EBSCOhost, viewed 10 December 2011.

Schwalbe, K., (2010), Information Technology Project Management (with Microsoft Project 2007 CD-ROM), 6th ed., Course Technology, 2010, ISBN 978-0-324-78692-7