Best method to control changes on a project

 Which of the following is the BEST method to contol changes on a project

 

a. Direct all changes to change control board.

b. Prevent changes from being made.

c. Look for sources of changes

d. Document the changes quickly when they occur.

admin's picture

 If you look at the source of changes then you can better control it. For eg: you see a lot of CRs and find out that source is from a given stakeholder who is himself not clear on scope.  You manage the source and you can better control the changes

jvleminc's picture

I'd say B is the best answer; preventing changes would also include looking at  potential sources of changes.

 

Prevent changes means stopping all changes... including genuine, beneficial ones. That's not what we want.

 

I'd go with C.

 

Regards.

 

jvleminc's picture

Hmm, ok, this is one of these interpretation questions. I didn't make "prevent" to mean "don't make any changes"; I interpreted it as preventing unnecesary changes...

With your interpretation, I'd go for A.

 I would say "c" but upon looking up Perform Integrated Change Control PMBOK 4 Page 93

Documenting the complete impact of change request

It has to be one of these two options. Remaining two can be ruled out.

a. Direct all changes to change control board.

c. Look for sources of changes

Now for a) you are leaving all the actions to the control board to do. In the case of c) you are proactively dealing with changes. This is one of the important goals in Monitoring & Control process - to make sure that the changes are beneficial and influence the factors around this.

 

Consider of a scenario that there are lot of changes in the project. Then the control board will not have time to just look at changes. If you were working on the source of changes, that condition will not arise.

 

That will make c) my answer.

ok - change comes in -
I direct it to CCB - For approval
Document it - for records
prevent it - preventive action
Look for source - root cause analysis - I guess its option c -

 Looking for the root cause of the change and correcting it is more important to prevent future changes.

 Yes guys correct answer is C.

 

thanks for the discussion...

 

I was confused with option B and C.

Here is my understanding:

Why not A: You do not direct ALL the changes to CCB. PM has the authority to make decisions on some of the changes.

Why not B: Some changes can be beneficial fot the project so Preventing the changes is not a wise decision at times.

Why C: You can check wether the option availble is beneficial or harmful to the project. so checking for the cource is a better option.

Why not D: its ok if I dont write the explainination, its obvious.