How to Improve Your Change Request Process

How to Improve Your Change Request Project

An essential part of a successful project is to get the change request management process correct. Whether a change request is coming from a client, or has been initiated from an internal team member, the change request process has to provide enough information to enable the change to be easily reviewed, then a decision can be made, and the change will then be implemented if it is decided that this is the correct outcome.

The goal is to deliver the change while minimising associated risks, and there is a set of steps that you can follow to make the change request process easier and more effective:

1.    Accurate evaluation of the effort of the change

One area of the process that solution providers often do not do very well is the evaluation of how much effort is required to implement the change. The best way to accurately evaluate the effort required, is to hold a planning session to determine the amount of people that is needed to work on the change request and also to define how much time the change request will take. By having the right people in these meetings, you should be able to successfully calculate the effort required, helping to stay to budget and lower the impact on work schedules.

2.    Impact analysis needs to be thorough

As well as looking at the effort required, you also need to discuss as a team how the requested change will impact current projects and work priorities. Sometimes implementing the change is not right for the business, or it is not right at that time, so it will need to be parked until a more suitable time. The biggest question to ask here is “What are the consequences if we do not implement this change?” If the answer to this question is not a significant concern, then the change is not really needed, especially if other changes are requested that have higher impact and need to be prioritised.

3.    Assign roles and responsibilities

One of the most important aspects of successful change request management is to define roles and responsibilities for every part of the change request process. Generally, these roles will be people working between the clients and the development team. For every change request, roles must be clearly defined, and it is also important to manage the expectations of the requesters and support staff.

4.    Use tools to design the process

Once you have evaluated the effort, analysed the impact and you fully understand the scale of the change project, the next step is to design your change management process. There are lots of different approaches for doing this but there are now powerful tools available to make this easier and more efficient. A change request tool can speed up the process, enabling faster collaboration and it will also ensure no part of the process is overlooked.

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