Techniques of Scope Change Management

Make Sure Only the Sponsor Approves Changes - Not Users and Client Managers

A typical problem on a project is that the team does not understand the roles of the sponsor, client and end users in the area of change management. In general, the project sponsor is the person who is funding the project. If the client were embodied in one person, it would be the project sponsor. The sponsor is usually high up in the organization and not easy to see on a day-to-day basis. In most cases, the sponsor designates someone in his organization to make most decisions on a daily basis.

The people that the project team tends to work with most often are normal clients and end users. End users are the people that use the solution that the project is building. The end users are the ones that will generally make requests for changes to deliverables. It doesn’t matter how important a change is to an end user, the end users cannot make scope change decisions and they cannot give your team the approval to make a scope change.

In proper scope change management, the sponsor (or his designee) must give the approval. The end users can request scope changes, but they cannot approve them. The end user cannot allocate additional funding to cover the changes and he cannot know if the project impact is acceptable. If the change is important enough to the sponsor, he will approve it, along with the appropriate budget and duration changes. If the change is not important enough, it will not be approved. However, it will be the sponsor making the decision, not the project manager, client manager, project team or end users.

Don’t Think that Saying ‘Yes’ to Change Requests Shows Good Client Focus

The project manager and project team sometimes think that they are being client-focused by accepting scope change while still trying to deliver the project within the original commitments. However, if the project is delivered late or over budget, it is usually not good enough to point out all the additional work that was included because of this ‘client focus’. The project sponsor and your managers don’t want to hear about it. In most cases, the project will not be seen as successful since it did not deliver as promised within the agreed–upon budget and delivery date.

The sponsor is the primary client representative. Allowing the sponsor (or his designee) to make scope change decisions shows good client focus. If the project team or project manager approves scope changes, he is not showing good client focus from the sponsor’s perspective.

Include Deferred Benefits in the Cost of a Scope Change

The project sponsor cannot make an informed decision on a scope change request without understanding the business value of the change and the impact to the project. Typically the project manager provides information on the impact to the project in terms of effort, cost and duration. A common deficiency in determining the impact, however, is that the estimates do not take into account the cost associated with deferred project benefit.

In other words, your project will result in a benefit to the company. The benefit usually starts immediately after (or soon after) the solution is implemented. If a scope change request results in the project being delayed, the cost of the scope change should include not only the cost of the actual change itself, but also the cost of the delayed benefit.

Look at the following example. Let’s say your project costs $100,000. The business benefit is $5,000 per month in increased revenue (or decreased cost). As the project is progressing, the client makes a change request that will cost $5,000 and add one more month to the project. The change has a payback of $1,000 per month.

You may go to the sponsor with a change request that states that there is a $5,000 cost and a payback in five months at $1,000 per month. However, the part that is missing is the cost associated with implementing one month late. In this case, implementing one month later than planned also costs the company $5,000 in deferred benefits, making the total cost of the scope change request $10,000. The sponsor may or may not still approve the change. However, taking into account the lost value associated with a project delay should be a part of the scope change impact for the sponsor to see and understand.

An Engaged Sponsor Will Often Say ‘No’

One of the neat things about enforcing the discipline of having the sponsor approve scope change requests is that, unless the change is very important, the sponsor will usually say ‘no’. The sponsor is usually someone high in the organization. He normally doesn’t want to hear about requests for small changes. He wants the original project fulfilled within the original commitments for cost, effort and duration. Even though it may be hard for the project manager to say ‘no’, the project sponsor usually doesn’t have any problem saying ‘no’ to the people in sponsor’s own organization.

Hold Everyone Accountable for Scope Management Process

Many scope management processes work well at the project manager level, but get compromised by team members. If the project manager is diligent in enforcing the scope change rules, the client may try to go directly to team members for changes. For instance, when an agreed-upon report is delivered for review, the client may request a second report to provide more clarity. The team member may agree to the work (showing ‘client focus’). The result is that the activity takes too long or resources that could have been applied to other high priority work get absorbed working in an area that is out of scope.

The bottom line is that everyone needs to be held accountable for the scope management process. Team members must understand the process and why it is important. The client must also understand the process and its importance. Don’t consider these procedures to be only of interest to the project manager and the sponsor. Make sure the procedures are communicated to the entire team.

When clients request scope changes directly from team members, bring this to the attention of the client manager or the sponsor. When team members make commitments for work that is out of scope, deal with it promptly. The first time it happens it may be considered a training matter. The next time it might be a performance problem.