4.6 Perform Integrated Change Control

Route every proposed change through one gate before anyone acts on it.

Monitoring and Controlling / Integration · ← PMBOK reference · See it on the map

Why it matters

Letting changes happen informally is how scope creeps in unnoticed and one team's fix quietly breaks another team's assumption.

What done looks like

Every change request has been reviewed and either approved, rejected, or deferred.

First time tip

Insist on the same review for a small change as a big one. The change that skips review because it looked minor is usually the one that causes a problem.

What you need (Inputs)

• Project Management Plan
• Change Management Plan
• Configuration Management Plan
• Scope Baseline
  How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: committed backlog items and definition-of-done items (models/agile.py) — a committed backlog (status ready/in_progress/done) plus a written definition of done is what an agile team baselines scope against
• Work Performance Reports
  How Scrum/Kanban projects satisfy this — counted from: sprint review evidence (driftless/models/delivery.py:Sprint) — a sprint closed with review notes is the periodic report the sprint's own cadence produces, fresh while the latest is inside the reporting window
• Change Requests
• Enterprise Environmental Factors
• Organizational Process Assets

How you do it (Tools & Techniques)

• Expert Judgment
• Change Control Tools
• Data Analysis
• Decision Making
• Meetings

What you get (Outputs)

• Approved Change Requests
• Change Log
• Project Management Plan

Worked example

The contractor asks to substitute a cheaper shelving unit to cover the water-damage repair cost. The project manager logs it as a change request, the sponsor reviews the trade-off against the scope statement, and approves it in writing before the order is placed.

Common pitfalls

• Letting the contractor swap materials on a verbal okay with no written record.
• Approving a change without checking what it does to the schedule or budget.
• Treating a rejected change as a debate to keep having instead of a closed decision.

How driftless helps

• Meetings can be run here.
• Change Log can be created in the wizard.