Change Management Process

By Nick Jenkins

The basis of change management is to have a clear process which everyone understands. It need not be bureaucratic or cumbersome but it should be applied universally and without fear of favour.

The basic elements of a change process are:

• What is under change control and what is excluded ?
• How are changes requested ?
• Who has the authority to approve or reject changes ?
• How are decisions upon approval or rejection are documented and disseminated ?
• How changes are implemented and their implementation recorded ?

The process should be widely understood and accepted and should be effective without being bureaucratic or prescriptive. It is important for the project team to be seen to be responsive to client needs and nothing can hurt this more than an overly-officious change control process. Change is inevitable in a project and while you need to control it you do not want to stifle it.

A typical process might be as minimal as the following:

1. Once a project document has been signed-off by stakeholders, a change to it requires a mandatory change request to be logged via email. The request will include the nature of the change, the reason for the change and an assessment of the urgency of the change.
2. A “change control board” consisting of the development manager, test lead and a product manager will assess the issue and approve or reject each request for change. Should more information be required a member of the change control board will be assigned to research the request and report back.
3. No change request should be outstanding for more than a week.
4. Important or urgent requests should be escalated through the nearest member of the change control board.
5. Each change which is accepted will be discussed at the weekly development meeting and a course of action decided by the group. Members of the development team will then be assigned to implement changes in their respective areas of responsibility.

If you have a flexible change request process team members can be encouraged to use it to seek additional information or clarification where they feel it would be useful to communicate issues to the whole project team.

Change Management - Introduction

By Nick Jenkins

A project of any significant length will necessarily deviate from its original plan in response to circumstances. This is fine as long as the change is understood. If the change is not managed but is happens at a whim, it is no longer a project, it’s anarchy!

Change management is a way of assessing the implications of potential changes and managing the impact on your project. For example a change in client requirements might mean a minor fix or it might mean a complete re-write of the design. Change management gives you a process to evaluate this and introduce the change in a controlled fashion.

Since change is inevitable you need a fluid way to handle the inputs to your project. It is important that the inputs to your project, your requirements and your design, are able to handle change and evolve over time. If your inputs are static, unchangeable documents then you are going to be hamstrung by their inability to keep pace with changing circumstances in your project.

The most important aspect of change control is to actually be able to know what has changed. On one product I worked with 30 or more programmers and there was no real change control. Every day the programmers would check in changes to the software and every night we used to run mammoth automated tests, processing 1.5 million data files and producing about 500 lines of test reports.

One day we’d come in and find that our results had improved 10-20% overnight. The next day we’d come back to find the product had crashed after the first thirty minutes and was unusable. The problem was we didn’t know who or what was responsible, there was no change control. Eventually we implemented a system and were able to make solid progress towards our goals.

Change Management - Tracking Change

By Nick Jenkins

To make change management easy you need a simple method of tracking, evaluating and recording changes. This can be a simple database or log but in large projects it has evolved into an customised information system in its own right.

As such the system needs to be able to handle:

• Logging requests for changes against products and documentation
• Recording and managing the priority of a particular change
• Logging the decision of a change management authority
• Recording the method and implementation of change
• Tracking implemented changes against a particular version of the product or document

The more structured a system the more secure the change control process, but obviously the more overhead. A balance must be struck between the enforcement of proper procedure and responsiveness of the system.

Change management systems are useful for managing everyone’s expectations too. Often decisions are requested by stakeholders or clients and if proper consultation is not entered into they can sometimes assume they will automatically be included (just because they asked for it). If the volume of change requests is particularly high (as it often is) communicating what’s in and what’s out manually can be difficult. A simple, well understood change management system can often be directly used by stakeholders to log, track and review changes and their approval. This is particularly true for projects that span disparate geographical locations where meetings may not be possible.

In many projects the change management system can be linked to (or is part of) a defect tracking system. Since resolution of a defect is, in effect, a request for change both can often be handled by he same system. The change and defect tracking system can also be linked with version control software to form what is commonly known as a Software Configuration Management (SCM) system. This integrated system directly references changes in the software against specific versions of the product or system as contained in its version control system. The direct one-to-one reference cuts down on management overhead and maintenance and allows the enforcement of strict security on allowable

Procurement Management in Project Management

By Joseph Phillips

I know lots of people who like to go shopping. One person (who shall remain nameless, but her initials are LISA) plans her vacations based on the shopping malls in the vicinity of her hotel. She buys an extra seat for the flight home, just to carry all of her new shoes and fancy outfits.

As a project manager, you can’t go project shopping just because shoes are on sale. While sales are good, they don’t always help the project to acquire the things it needs to reach project closure.

There’s nothing better than finding a sale on the hardware or software that your project needs, but you and I know that’s just not the way technology and procurement usually works. We have to shop, compare, evaluate, and eventually cough up the cash to get what our projects need.

But here’s some Econ 101 for you: Prices are affected by supply and demand, pending changes, and other factors, from government regulations to the economy as a whole.

Generally, three specific conditions affect how much you pay for the things your project needs:

• Sole source. In this condition, you’ll likely pay big bucks. Sole source means there is only one qualified seller in the market. This is supply and demand at its finest. If your project needs a Cisco CCIE-certified consultant who must also know how to program in COBOL, speak Spanish, and cook spaghetti for up to forty people, and must live local to your firm, those are some high requirements—you’ll likely have to pay a higher dollar for this expert than for your average spaghetti-cooking hack.

• Single source. You’re in love. When there’s a single source provider, your organization prefers to work with this provider even though other providers may be less costly or more qualified. The danger is that your single source provider may know your attachment and take advantage of the situation. Or get lax in their commitment to quality. Or go out of business.

• Oligopoly. This market condition means that there are so few providers of the particular good or service that the events, actions, or circumstances of one seller affect the events, actions, or circumstances of the other sellers. Examples: Airline fares; oil prices; hardware costs; or possibly availability of spaghetti-cooking, COBOL-programming CCIEs who live in your neighborhood. 

Parents' income, education affect kids' health

It’s no surprise that children born to poor and uneducated parents are more likely to be in bad health and die as infants than children of the wealthy and educated. But a new study released Tuesday (Oct. 7) says parents’ income and education are so linked to their children’s health that there’s even a significant difference between the health of middle-class children versus that of their wealthier counterparts.

“The public should not be shocked that children in poor families have worse health than children in better-off families…However, it will be startling to most people to learn that children in middle-class families have worse health than children in wealthier families,” said Paula Braveman, one of the authors of the report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Commission to Build a Healthier America.

 

“It vividly illustrates how much parents’ income and education levels matter when it comes to children’s health,” she said. “They matter a lot.”

 

The health of American children is a matter of concern, made worse by the disparities that exist between poor kids and rich kids, the report found.

 

The authors warned that the sources of health disparities are so entrenched that a major expansion of health care alone would not close the gap. They said in a conference call to discuss the findings that although policymakers, including the presidential candidates, are focused on improving health care, the problem needs to be tackled by changing underlying social conditions.

 

“Even if we had equal access to health care, we’d still have disparities and shortfalls in health,” said David Williams, the commission's staff director. “It’s not just access to health care, it’s where you live, learn, work, play and worship.”

 

For example, the report authors said, children in unsafe neighborhoods have less access to parks and other recreational centers, and grocery stories in poor neighborhoods probably don’t sell healthy foods like fresh fruit. Children born to less-educated parents also are more likely to be pick up unhealthy habits and be exposed to secondhand smoke.

 

The report looked at infant mortality and children’s health. Nationwide, 6.5 out of 1,000 infants die before their first birthdays, a problem that is worst in Mississippi, which has the highest overall infant mortality rates: 9.9 deaths every 1,000 live births. Massachusetts has the lowest level, 4.6 deaths per 1,000 infants.  

 

The report also correlated these rates to how many years of schooling the mother completed. In Tennessee, for example, the infant mortality rate for mothers with less than a high school education was 11.7 deaths per 1,000 infants; that rate fell to 4.9 deaths for mothers who at least had a bachelor’s degree.

 

The report also compared numbers of children with “optimal” health — based on parents’ assessment of whether their children’s health ranged from “excellent” to “poor” — with family incomes ranging from the federal poverty level to those making more than four times as much. (The report authors said using parents’ assessments highly correlates with more objective measures of health.)

 

Nationwide, 15.9 percent of children aren’t at optimal health. Among the states, Texas has the biggest percentage of children with less-than-optimal health — 22.8 percent — followed closely by California (22.5 percent) and Nevada (20.4 percent).  

 

Once income is considered, the three states also have the largest percentages of poor kids with less than good health: 44.1 percent of poor Texan children, 43.5 percent of Nevadans and 41 percent of poor Californian kids have less-than-perfect health.

 

This results in some of the biggest “health gaps” between the percentage of poor and rich children with imperfect health, according to the report. In Texas, 44.1 percent of poor children have less-than-optimal health, while only 6.7 percent of children in high-income families are at that level.

 

The states with the biggest health gaps comprise a wide swath of the South and Southwest. States in the upper Midwest, northern Great Plains and Northeast have the smallest gaps between poor and rich kids when it comes to health.

 

In Vermont, only 6.9 percent of children are considered not healthy, followed by New Hampshire (8.3 percent), Maine (9.1 percent) and North Dakota (9.2 percent).

Celebrating higher education day

State officials are offering Wisconsin students several events outlining the benefits of higher education, how to save money for college and what is important about financial aid programs throughout today.

This is the third annual “Higher Education Day,” declared by State Treasurer Dawn Sass who said in a statement this day would encourage students of all ages to take advantage of the higher education opportunities available throughout Wisconsin.

Secretary of State Doug La Follete will visit three Madison high schools to discuss the significance of higher education and how students can best access resources to help overcome challenges posed in today’s competitive world.

Megan Perkins, director of EdVest, Wisconsin’s college savings plan, said state officials are in a “lucky position” because they can bring things that are “important in our state” to the attention of citizens.

“They sign the proclamation every year. … They have a voice that people really listen to, so it’s sort of their obligation to help show the amazing programs that already exist and bring awareness to the things we need to work on,” Perkins said.

Events will also be held throughout the University of Wisconsin System, outlining how receiving an upper-level education is a benefit, as well as how it profits the community as a whole, Perkins added.

Conrad Clifton, professor of higher education and educational leadership at UW, said due to higher education, Wisconsin is a much “richer state” and citizens are more committed to the common good rather than solely the good of the marketplace. People are more invested in their civic responsibilities and, in turn, are less likely to cause trouble in society, Clifton said.

“We underestimate the societal benefits of having more educated citizenry and overlook the invisible benefits to the individuals who clearly lead richer and more robust lives due to their higher education,” Clifton said.

The program will draw more attention to benefits beyond being caught up in the corporate aspect of the university, he added.

Clifton said creating a designated “Higher Education Day” draws attention to how community members are able to contribute to the quality of life in Wisconsin. The events aim to highlight how a post-secondary education will help shape students into future leaders and successful workers in society.

A higher level of education provides students with essential learning skills that lay the foundation for a future successful career, and receiving an upper-level education provides students with access to more and better jobs, Clifton said.

“Our universities do some very special things, and this whole project is aimed at helping parents, teachers, students and business leaders understand that our students come out of their university education with the skills they need to be effective in the real world,” said Elaine Klein, assistant dean at the UW College of Letters and Science.

The UW Financial Aid office will host an all-day open house in the office lobby and a table at fountain plaza to distribute candy and discuss financial aid programs.

A Financial Aid 101 program will be held at the Financial Aid Education Center at 2300 S. Park St. to talk about different types of financial aid, how to apply and the value of student loans.

Project Management - How to Avoid Dead Projects

I visit many different organizations over the course of the year. As I begin working with a client, inevitably someone whispers to me, “Can you help kill my project?” I don’t normally kill projects, but some folks are so desperate to stop working on already-dead projects, they think a consultant can help. These people can see the misalignment in their organization — between the projects the organization requires and the funded projects — but they think they need outside help to stop working on hopeless projects.

You can identify the already-dead projects yourself, by asking some questions.

1. When is this project due? Can I ship this project in time to meet its release date?

   If you haven’t started a project in time to meet its release date, you are creating a dead project. If you can’t meet a project’s release date, don’t start it. At least, don’t start it under no-win conditions. Make sure the project environment (staffing, tools, and other resources) will support the release date.

   If you can’t release this project in time to meet its due date, have you explained when you can release the project, given its current state? Come to think of it, have you explained what it will take to release the project at all?

   If you can’t figure out a way to make the project succeed, it will become an already-dead project.

2. Is the project feasible? Does anyone have the technical knowledge to do the project?

   If you haven’t done all the necessary investigation, you don’t really know whether the project is do-able. It’s a good idea to go back and look at when the project was funded and under what circumstances. You may want to talk to those people and ask what made them fund the project. It may be that your project goal should be to do more research, not to release a usable product.

   If the project is not feasible (an “otherworld” project), see if you can figure out how to bring it back down to earth, to what is feasible. This is also a good time to ask for help. Chances are good no one else in your organization knows what to do either. If you don’t ask for help, you will continue to work on a dead project.

3. Will the final project meet the needs of the customers?

   If you don’t know who your customers are, or you haven’t talked to them in six months, you will not deliver what your customers want. This is a slow, but sure, way to create a dead project.

   Find out who your customers are, and keep talking to them. Involve them in the user interface development, in the attributes of the system (how fast, how much load the system can sustain, how reliable it needs to be, and so on), and what the system will provide.

To avoid creating or working on dead projects, make sure you

1. can accomplish your project in the allotted time,
2. can perform the project work (or know someone who can), and
3. know who your customer is and what she or he wants.