In this category, you will learn about change requests, project risks and issues, and reporting and metrics.

Change Control

The process of Change Control involves reviewing all change requests, approving and managing changes to deliverables and the project plan, and communicating changes and their impact to all stakeholders.

A change request is a formal proposal to modify any document, deliverable, or baseline. When issues are found while project work is being performed, change requests are submitted, which may modify project policies or procedures, project scope, project cost or budget, project schedule, or project quality. Other change requests cover necessary preventive or corrective actions to reduce negative impact later in the project.

PMs are responsible for ensuring that projects remain in scope. If new functionality is requested that is not part of the original project scope, the PM MUST raise a project change request in the PPM tool for approval by the Project Sponsor and the Key Stakeholder.

Change requests are raised in the PPM tool under “Changes.” Once a change is approved, ensure all relevant information is updated (project schedule, health, requirements, etc.).

Risk and Issue Mitigation

A project risk is an uncertain event or condition that, if it occurs, has a positive or negative effect on one or more project objectives such as scope, schedule, cost, and quality.

Risk conditions may include aspects of the project’s or organization’s environment that contribute to project risk, such as project complexity, concurrent multiple projects, dependency on another project, or external participants/vendors who are outside the project’s direct control.

Identifying risks is the process of determining which risks may affect the project and documenting their characteristics. The key benefit of this process is the documentation of existing risks and the knowledge and ability it provides to the project team to anticipate events.

Risk in the PPM tool should be entered with Probability and Impact, in order to have a Risk Matrix, and a full overview, including a Mitigation Plan (explaining how to reduce the probability of the risk happening) and a Contingency Plan (explaining how to control the impact if the risk occurs).

A project issue is an event or condition that has negative consequences for a project. The term implies a situation that is recoverable or that can be mitigated in some way.

Issues typically surface throughout the duration of a project; they can arise without warning. Issues should be tracked and addressed quickly so they do not have a negative impact on the project.

The IT PMO highly encourages communicating issues early, as this allows teams to respond to issues quickly before potentially impacting key milestones on the project.

Each project issue should be entered in the PPM tool with an owner, category (Data, Finance, People, Process, Scope, Schedule, Technology), prioritization, and target date for resolution. Once resolved, the issue should be closed.

Reporting and Metrics

Per IT PMO guidelines, PMs must communicate to the Project Sponsor and key stakeholders and report on the following in the PPM tool:

  • IT Project Charter, including sign off at the beginning and end of a project (linked to OGSM % Charter approved by Sponsor)
  • Description and Value Statement
  • Benefits, Cost, and CAR tracking (linked to OGSM $ Value realization metric)
  • Project Requirements (linked to OGSM % Requirements delivered)
  • Success Criteria
  • Communication Plan and Status Updates
  • Schedule, Baseline, and Percent Completion
  • Project Health
  • Project State
  • Risk and Issues (whenever applicable)