Managing Change and Configuration in Project Environments

Homework Assignment: Week 9

Instructions

Please put your name/date in the header.  Answers should be no longer than six sentences per question.  Please refer to the class syllabus for the grading rubric.  Assignment is worth a total of 10 points. 

Please save the file using the following naming system: Class_Name_Week#_Assignment.  For example, if Rosie Dodson was submitting her week 7 homework, her file would be saved with the following title: MGMT410_RDodson_week7_homework.

Pinto Question 1:

What are some common reasons that necessitate change on projects?  Of these reasons, which do you think occurs most frequently in projects?

Some of the common reasons that necessitate change on projects include the lack of adequate resources, poorly defined requirements, scope errors, change in stakeholder requirements or sponsorship, and other external and resource factors. Among these, I think that the ones that occur most frequently include the lack of adequate resources, poorly defined requirements, scope errors, and changes in external factors. When the project lacks adequate resources to proceed, change is required to facilitate its completion. Additionally, if conditions, as defined by the stakeholders or external factors, change, the project is often forced to change to continue operations and ensure survival within the new conditions.

Pinto/Verzuh Question 2:

What is the benefit of implementing Configuration Management on a project?  What are some potential issues that could occur if changes were informally approved without any documentation or communication?

Configuration management is often used to control different versions of the product. It is particularly useful when dealing with a product within a project that is likely to have multiple versions. As such, configuration management plays an important role in tracking versions, revisions to design, technical specifications, blueprints, etc. It is therefore one of the useful measures that can be used to facilitate change management as it allows for changes to be tracked throughout the project. In this regard, it highlights a potential issue when changes are informally approved without any documentation or communication. Since other departments and/or entities are not aware of the changes, they might not only unknowingly redo or undo them but this might also result in conflict. This can also bring about resource misuse and may bring about the failure of the project.

Verzuh Question 3: 

Explain why stakeholder engagement is important during the Change Control process, even if the stakeholders were the ones who proposed the change.

Stakeholder engagement is the process by which an organization involves individuals/entities that may be affected by the decisions they make or the projects they implement. Engaging stakeholders is important as it allows the organization to learn about the stakeholders, the project’s points of interest, and bring about better decision making as the views and interests of stakeholders will be put into consideration. It also plays an important role in risk management and building trust and accountability as the organization opens up to its stakeholders and only invests in projects that will not adversely affect its stakeholders. As such, even if the stakeholders are the ones who proposed the change, involving them in the project allows for different perspectives and increases the likelihood of project success. 

Verzuh Question 4 (lead-in question for Week 10): 

In the Reducing the Time to Market section (Verzuh, p.398), the statement “there’s no point in generating a detailed schedule from start to finish” seems contradictory to project management best practices.  In this situation, what metric does the team utilize to track progress?  What do you think are the benefits/drawbacks of utilizing this tracking structure?

Verzuh cites that “there’s no point in generating a detailed schedule from start to finish” (p. 398). Instead, he recommends the use of several viewpoints that can be used to reevaluate the functions of the product against the available resources and deadline. The review points identified can constitute phase-end milestones whose duration can be determined from past projects’ performance. These metrics can be used to ensure that the project meets the required deadlines and milestones. As such, they can prove useful when trying to release products faster and stay ahead of the competition.