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This is an excerpt from Project Pain Reliever. I contributed to two chapters.
Are your project requirements changing all the time? Are you expected to complete a project without knowing what you are supposed to do?
Here are some ways to get out of a similar situation.
What should I do? A clear set of requirements
2. Set expectations
3. Review the change control process and create it (or review it).
When you see…
Note: This article assumes that you work in a predictive environment. Agile methodologies provide additional tools to help you manage changes in requirements. Flexibility is a key part of agile methods.
However, this is not true for those who work in more prescriptive environments that lack the culture and structures of agile to support project delivery.
What should I do?
It’s important to keep track of the requirements as soon as they change. Even if you don’t have the ability to see far into the future, it is important to fix them as soon as possible. Focus on what you can control and create a plan for adapting to future changes.
You need to know where you are at the moment and how you will handle changes if something else changes.
1. Clear set of requirements
Refer back to your scope, terms of reference and business case. What is the project trying to accomplish?
This is the foundation of your requirements. Make a list of all the requirements that you have for the project, and ensure that they are all related to the project’s goals.
Ask your stakeholders to look at the list and confirm that it represents their current view of the project’s potential outcomes.
If there are conflicting requirements (e.g. Marketing wants the widget in blue, Customer Services wants it in orange), ask your Sponsor for an arbitration. Although it is easier to get everyone together to agree on the final list, you can organize individual sessions with each stakeholder if there are likely to be conflicts.
This exercise will provide a baseline for your project’s requirements. Any changes must be evaluated and passed through the change control process.
Next: Strategies for managing conflict on projects and how to deal with conflicting needs
2. Set expectations
Here’s how you can set and manage expectations. Talk to all stakeholders and explain to them the costs of making changes. If they change their mind and want to add or alter a requirement in the future, there will be a cost to pay. It doesn’t always have to be a financial cost.
The result?
The project could take longer than expected or be completed sooner.
It is possible to use more resources
The outcome could be of a different quality than what was agreed upon previously
The project could be more expensive.
Changes are often desirable and not something to be concerned about. Accept the changes: All stakeholders should know they have the right to make changes if necessary.
They should however, do so with full knowledge of the impact and guidance from you as to how to make the change. It is easier to make changes early in a project.
It is difficult to make changes to the hotel’s layout while the decorators are still finishing up. You can make smaller changes later on, but they could be incorporated into Phase 2 or another project.
3. Review the change control process and create it (or review it).
Once you have established a baseline of project requirements you will need to be able to tell what to do if you are asked to make a change.
The change control process informs