9. Processing Change Requests and Procurement Documents

The change management process steps

1. Identify and document the change request. 2. Track requests in the change request log. 3. Evaluate the impact and justification of the change. 4. Disposition the request at the change control board (CCB) and approve or deny. 5. Implement the change. 6. Validate the change and perform a quality check. 7. Update the project management plan, update the appropriate project documents, and apply version control. 8. Coordinate and communicate with the appropriate stakeholders.

(change management process) Change Request Log

A number of things should happen once the change request is submitted. First, it should be assigned an identifying number for tracking purposes. Then, it should be recorded in the change request log. This log is easy to construct in a spreadsheet file.

Statement of Work (SOW)

If you're working with vendors to perform some or all of the work of the project, it's critical that they know exactly what you are asking them to do. The statement of work (SOW) details the goods or services you want to procure. In many respects it's similar to the project scope statement, except that it focuses on the work being procured. It contains the project description, major deliverables, success criteria, assumptions, and constraints.

Cease-and-Desist Letter

informs the other party to stop (cease) doing the activity they're doing and not do it again (desist). A cease-and-desist letter might be sent to someone who is violating copyright laws as an example.

(organizational changes) Relocation

involves a physical move of the organization, or parts of the organization, and may impact your project. There could be resources (both physical and human) assigned to the project that are targeted for relocation.

Sprint Planning

A sprint, which is a time-bound period of work, always starts with a sprint planning meeting. During the meeting, team members choose items from the backlog to work on during the sprint. The backlog is a list of requirements (both functional and nonfunctional) for the project. The backlog is reviewed at the beginning of each sprint, and new requirements can be introduced, changes can be made to existing requirements, or some requirements might be deleted altogether. The product owner typically determines whether a requirement should be added or removed from the backlog.

Scrum Retrospective

After the sprint has concluded, a Scrum retrospective meeting with the team members, Scrum master, and product owner is held to determine the following: 1. Overall progress 2. Work that was completed 3. Work that was planned but not completed 4. Work that needs to carry over into the next sprint 5. To review lessons learned to determine how the next sprint, and future sprints, can be improved

(change management process) Communicating the Changes

Changes should be communicated to the sponsor, stakeholders, and project team members. This can be accomplished in several ways, and one of the most effective is at the project status meeting. Project status meetings are generally kicked off during the Executing phase to keep stakeholders apprised of progress.

(organizational changes) Business Merger/Acquisition

Changes that come in the form of mergers or acquisitions can lead to project changes or sometimes project cancelations. For the exam, it's important to understand the difference between a merger and an acquisition. A merger is when two businesses come together to perform business as one organization. Once the merger is complete, they are one entity. An acquisition is when one business takes over another. The organization performing the takeover has the power and authority and becomes the decision maker for both organizations. Mergers or acquisitions could change the overall objectives and goals of the project.

(change management process) Updating the Project Management Plan

Changes to the project will require updates to the affected project documents, including but not limited to the project scope statement, budget, schedule, risk register, and quality plans.

Corrective Actions

Corrective actions bring the work of the project into alignment with the project management plan.

Defect Repairs

Defect repairs either correct or replace components that are substandard or are malfunctioning.

(change management process) Change Control Board

In many organizations, a change control board is established to review all change requests and approve, deny, or defer the request. CCB members might include stakeholders, managers, project team members, and others who might not have any connection to the project at hand. A basic CCB assigns approval authority equally among the key stakeholders on the project. Complex projects or projects that involve one business area more than others may require approval authority weighted toward that business unit. For example, let's say you're implementing a new recruitment software program for the human resources department. A change request is submitted that has to do with the recruitment business process and primarily only affects the human resources department. In this case, the human resources stakeholder should have more say in the decision on the change request than other stakeholders.

(change management process) Validate the Change

Once the change is implemented, you'll need to validate that the change was made and that it met the requirements of the change request. You'll check the quality of the change to assure it was performed accurately and completely. If there are problems, you may need to implement your regression plan and reverse the changes and then evaluate why the change did not function as planned.

Preventive Actions

Preventive actions are implemented to help reduce the probability of a negative risk event.

Other 2 in the agile management model

Stakeholders, Team Members

(change management process) Evaluate the Impact and Justification of Change

The changes are typically evaluated by the subject-matter experts working on the area of the project that the change impacts, along with input from the project manager. After answering these basic questions, the expert should then analyze the specific elements of the change request, such as additional equipment needs, resource hours, costs, skills or expertise needed to work on the change, quality impacts, and so on. The project manager will also analyze the schedule, the budget, and the resource allocation to determine what impacts will occur as a result of the change. Evaluating the impacts of the change request may include what CompTIA calls a regression plan. You can think of this as the ability to reverse changes or back out the changes and revert to the previous state.

(change management process) Identify and Document the Change Request

The process should describe where to obtain a form for a change request, where and who change requests are submitted to for consideration, and a communication process for keeping the requestor apprised of the status. A change request could be submitted by most anyone working on or associated with the project. Change requests should always be in writing. Beware! Stakeholders are notorious for asking for changes verbally even though there is a change control process in place. Spend time at the kickoff meeting explaining to everyone where to find the forms and how to follow the process. Make it a point that only change requests that come in via the process will be considered. Verbal requests and drive-bys to the project team will not be accepted.

(organizational changes) Internal Reorganization

This could potentially delay the schedule, especially if you will no longer have the resources originally planned for project activities. You'll need time to negotiate resource availability with the new managers.

Other Methodologies

Waterfall- an approach where each phase of the project is completed in its entirety before moving to the next phase. This can be a risky methodology because it leaves little room for adding new requirements or functionality, and it doesn't perform reviews or testing of the final product until the end of the project. Final acceptance of the product also occurs at the end of the project after all the deliverables are complete. With Agile or Scrum there are continuous reviews and approvals throughout the project, and you will know right away if you're off-track. For the exam, you should know that the waterfall and Agile methodologies each use an iterative approach. PRINCE2 stands for Projects in Controlled Environments version 2- it incorporates quality management into the project management processes. It is a comprehensive methodology and is supported by the UK government. It's a methodology that tends to divide projects into multiple stages.

(change management process) Implement the Change

When a change request is approved, you will need to implement the change. This may require scheduling changes, resource changes, or additional funds. Depending on the complexity of the change, you may need to coordinate activities with the project team and schedule the change at an appropriate time. If the change will come at a later stage in the project, make certain to perform the risk processes because a change could introduce the potential for new risks. You'll need to identify the new risks, log them on the risk register, determine their risk score, and develop response plans for them if appropriate.

Time and Materials Contract

a cross between fixed-price and cost-reimbursable contracts. The buyer and the seller agree on a unit rate, such as the hourly rate for a programmer, but the total cost is unknown and will depend on the amount of time spent to produce the product or service. This type of contract is often used for staff augmentation, where contract workers are brought on to perform specific tasks on the project.

Agile project management

a method of managing projects in small, incremental portions of work that can be easily assigned, easily managed, and completed within a short period of time called an iteration or sprint. Iterations or sprints (the terms are interchangeable) are always time-bound. Typically, a sprint is a two-week period but can be any short period of time defined and agreed upon by the team. The goal of a sprint is to produce a deliverable, or a tangible portion of a deliverable, by the end of the sprint. Agile is a highly iterative approach where requirements can be continually defined and refined based on continuous feedback from the product owner. Agile methodologies have many benefits, and one of the greatest is high stakeholder involvement. It's a flexible approach that is highly interactive. It encourages a great deal of communication between and among the team. The Agile team consists of several members: Scrum master, product owner, stakeholders, team members.

Memorandum of Understanding (MOU)

an agreement that may outline specific performance criteria or other actions between two or more parties. An MOU is used when a legal agreement can't be created between the parties. For example, two or more government agencies may have an MOU that describes the actions, services, or performance criteria between them. Government agencies cannot hold one another accountable legally as you could with a vendor who is not performing per the terms of a contract. Nonperformance by either party under a contract is enforceable in court. An MOU is not legally enforceable.

Scrum Master

coordinates the work of the sprint. They also run interference between the team and distractions that might keep them from the work at hand. A Scrum master is a facilitator and helps to educate others in the Agile process. They assist the product owner in maintaining the backlog, prioritizing work, and defining when the work is done. The Scrum master is a facilitator and not a manager. Project team members do not report to the Scrum master.

Service Level Agreement (SLA)

defines service level performance expectations among two or more parties. For example, the information technology department may have SLAs in place that outline how quickly they will respond to a critical service desk ticket.

Make-or-buy analysis

determines whether it's more cost-effective to produce the needed resources in-house or to procure them from outside the organization. determines whether it's more cost-effective to produce the needed resources in-house or to procure them from outside the organization.

Change control systems

documented procedures that describe how the deliverables of the project are controlled, changed, and approved. They also describe and manage the documentation required to request and track the changes and the updates to the project management plan.

(organizational changes) Outsourcing

occurs when an organization uses external resources to perform business processes and tasks. Outsourcing usually involves hiring outside companies to perform business functions or tasks such as payroll, information technology, security, janitorial services, and so on.

Letter of Intent

outlines the intent or actions of both parties before entering into a contract or other mutually binding agreement. It's a negotiable document and can be thought of as an agreement to agree on the terms and conditions.

Cost-Reimbursable Contract

reimburses the seller for all the allowable costs associated with producing the goods or services outlined in the contract. This type of contract is riskiest for the buyer because the total costs are unknown until the project is completed. The advantage in this type of contract is that the buyer can easily change scope.

Product Owner

represents the stakeholders and is the liaison between the stakeholders and the Scrum master. They speak on behalf of the business unit, customer, or the end user of the product and are considered the voice of the customer. There should be only one product owner on the team. Communicating with the stakeholders is a critical responsibility of the product owner. They communicate progress and milestones achieved. They determine project scope, schedule, and request the funding needed to complete the work of the project. They manage and prioritize the backlog, which is essentially a list of tasks or work components.

Daily Standups or Scrum Meetings

should be held at the same time and same place every day and should be time limited, usually no more than 15 minutes. Team members must come prepared to discuss the answers to three questions at each meeting: What did I accomplish yesterday? What will I work on today? Do I have any roadblocks or issues preventing me from doing my work? Standups are an important element in the Agile process. They keep the team informed and alert the Scrum master of any obstacles in the way of completing tasks.

burn-down chart

shows the remaining work effort (or time remaining) for the sprint. It displays the time period of the sprint on the horizontal axis (usually expressed as days) and the backlog items on the vertical axis (can be expressed as days or hours) At the end of each day, team members update their estimates for the remaining amount of work, which then updates the burn-down chart. Team members and stakeholders can visually see the amount of work remaining in the sprint.

(organizational changes) Business Demerger/Split

the opposite of a merger or acquisition. The organizations that merged or were acquired decide to break into separate entities. A demerger or split is also likely to change the overall goals of the project or perhaps cause its cancellation.

Procurement planning

the process of identifying the goods and services required for your project that will be purchased from outside the organization. If your project doesn't require any external resources, you don't need a procurement plan.

Vendor Solicitation

the process of obtaining responses from vendors to complete the project work as documented in the SOW. Typically, a procurement document is prepared to notify prospective sellers of upcoming work. You can prepare the solicitation notice in several ways: Request for Information (RFI): An RFI is used when you need to gather more information about the goods or services you need to procure. This process will give you a sense for the number of providers or contractors who can provide the goods or services, and you will get an idea of cost. An RFI or RFQ is used when the costs are unknown to you and you need an estimate for the goods or services. Request for Quotation (RFQ): RFQ is similar to the RFI. They both serve the same purpose, and most organizations use one or the other of these procurement methods when determining estimates. Request for Proposal (RFP): An RFP is submitted when you are ready to procure and begin the work. This process includes submitting the SOW, receiving bids from vendors and suppliers, evaluating the responses, and making a selection.

(organizational changes) Business Process Change

typically occur within the organization. An example of a business process change is automating a process that previously was performed on paper. If your project has anything to do with this process or is impacted by the process, changes will be coming your way.

Purchase Order (PO)

typically written by a buyer and describes the specifications and quantities of the goods or services being purchased and the price. Once the PO is accepted by the seller, it is a legally binding document.

Nondisclosure Agreement (NDA)

used when organizations engage the services of an outside entity and want to assure that sensitive or trade secret information is not shared outside the organization. An NDA assures that what's discussed, discovered, or developed is kept within the organization.