Link between Project Management and Change Control Management

This paper explores the link between project management and change control management and the importance of integrating the two for successful project outcomes.

Running head: ADVANCED PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Advanced Project Management
Name of Student:
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Executive Summary
This paper defines the roles and impact of combining project management and change manage
plan together. It will help the project owners and the organization to meet the project objectives.
It also motivates the project manager and project team members.

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Link between project management and change control management.............................................3
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................9
References......................................................................................................................................11
Appendix........................................................................................................................................14

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Introduction
A structural business process approach is always defines as a combination of change
management plan and project management plan. Mostly it is found that the project owners are
failing to integrate the project management approaches to the change management plan. Very
often it is determined that people’s lives are either positively or negatively getting impacted
through projects but roles, tasks and jobs are not accurately considered. In order to successfully
implement any project within estimated time and budget professional project management
practices are needed to be followed by the project managers. Besides project management
practices change management plan is the other knowledge area that requires major focus.
This paper demonstrates the link between project management and change management
or lack of. However, it is the role of the project manager to follow and establish project
management methodologies to achieve project success and objectives. Though, in most of
worldwide projects some of the failures are evident and one of the important reason for such
failure are project implements change management but forget to introduce the important project
management parameters. While implem3nting such change management the roles and
responsibilities that the project manager needs to follow are recommended in this paper.
Link between project management and change control management
According to Kerzner and Kerzner (2017) successful accomplishment of any structural
business approach needs combination between project management and change management.
Successful change can be manipulated with different types of factors that can affect the change
results and project objectives. For individual’s transition change management is applied as a

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structured and strategic approach. Hornstein (2015) stated that, the combinations of project
management change management are very often considered as integrated transition activity.
Change management plan is referred to as a systematic approach that is used to deal with internal
and external business changes from both the organizational and individuals perspectives. The
ambiguous term change management is used for three different aspects in terms of adoption of
change management plan, controlling changes and effecting changes. In other words, Binder
(2016) opined that change management is a formal process where changes in projects are
introduced and also approved respectively. Again, Cameron and Green (2015) stated that, change
management is a set of process employed to make sure that all significant changes are orderly
implemented and controlled as well to affect the needful organizational changes. Whenever an
organization introduces change with any project that change should be effectively managed from
both the people and technical perspectives.
Focus on the technical side makes sure that the changes are designed, developed and
delivered accurately (Rosemann and vom Brocke 2015). On the other hand, the project
management discipline gives project structures, tools and process required to accomplish any
project. Project management and change management are collectively aimed to increase the
probability which projects and initiatives deliver the planned results as well as outcomes.
According to Cummings, Bridgman and Brown (2016) each of the project management and
change management discipline are functionally independent. However the most effective
approach is to combine the change management and project management together to generate an
amalgamated approach for change implementation in both the fronts.

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Value of such integration
The combined form of project management and change management can create values on
any given initiatives or projects for different reasons and theses reasons are as follows:
Shared objectives: whenever a link is created between project management and change
management the integrated efforts put its focus on the single shared project objective (Binder
2016). The combined focus will help the project manager and project owner to meet the
objectives determined by the client. It also improves the individual’s and overall organizational
performance while implementing the change which delivers the expected outcome or predictable
result.
Proactive steps: According to Heckmann, Steger and Dowling (2016) while change
management and project management prcatices are integrated together the efforts required for
managing the people of change could identify as well as resolve the potential risks in a much
proactive manner. In other words, it will help to identify or address the potential obstacles as
well as resistance to develop commitment and buy in for the identified changes.
Sequencing and business alignment: While activities of the project associates and
technical activities are integrated the correct action can be undertaken at the accurate time in
project management lifecycle for helping all the employees embrace the changes and produce
expected outcome of the project (Niazi et al. 2016). In other words, the structured combination
of change management and project management mostly develops strategies that are aligned to
the project objectives.

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Information sharing: Kerzner and Kerzner 2017) stated that the flow of information
becomes much improved when the change management plan is integrated to project management
plan. This integrated process makes sure that on the front end the impacted working employees
are getting all accurate information. On the opposite side, in back end the combines process
make sure that all associate project team members are receiving appropriate feedback regarding
the adoption, use and reaction for changes.
Recognition of values and roles of change management: Before integrating project
management and change management their roles and values are to be acknowledged by the
project managers and project associate team members. Bresnen (2016) stated that, the change
management should be valued as well as viewed as an essential component for successful project
delivery. The concept of change management and project management are different but the goal
of the combines approach is similar.
Three individual responsibilities are served by the change control process in project
management lifecycle and these are as follows:
Addressing possible changes in terms of impact that will have on the complete project the
entire change definition and the project modules those are affected. For any kind of
discrepancies, the assumed changes are to be reviewed. The changes should be approved after
the stringent analysis considering all the project management perspectives. In order to implement
the identified and assumed organizational and project changes if proper change management plan
is not implemented then the complete project will be interrupted (Hornstein 2015). The process
of change management must not lag the project management prcatices. It has been defined that
change control is referred to as a point where most projects are found in risks from the initial

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inception. In order to meet any kind of identified project changes the combination of change
management and project management are very essential.
Recommendation to project manager
It is found that both the change management as well as project management generally
aims to enhance the likelihoods of the projects by delivering proper initiatives that further
intends proper outcomes as well as results. As each of the discipline can be able to properly
function the most important approach in order to properly integrating the change management
within the project, it is necessary to create proper unified approach for successfully
implementing the change. In order to integrate both the change management as well as project
management, it is recommended that the project managers must adopt the following steps that
are generally elaborated below:
Focus on the need and value of change management in project: It is identified that
before the integration of the change management and project management, there is a requirement
to properly acknowledge the role as well as the change management value. It is found that
change management can generally be viewed as well as valued as a proper crucial component for
the delivery of the project. Proper information as well as knowledge about the change
management can be gained within the project during the progress of the project so that the
integration of change management within the project can be done quite successfully which
further helps in keeping the entire project on track and helps in avoiding the slippage of
schedule. The project manager must also focus on the connection of the change management
with the success of the project. As there are a number of approaches that helps in making
connection by properly applying the change management then it would generally create impact

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by properly realizing the benefits as well as for achieving proper results and outcomes within the
project.
Carrying out change assessment: The project manager must focus on the change
request in detail and then assess its impact on schedule, documentation, budget, quality
measures, scope as well as availability of resources. In addition to this, it is necessary to check
the documents as well as other training manuals. In some of the cases, it is identified that
changes cannot be implemented as the benefit that is perceived is quite less After proper
analysis, the decision of making changes within the project must be made. This step that is taken
by the project manager helps in controlling the changes.
Utilization of change management control tools: It is found that there are a number of
change management control tools that are necessary for controlling the changes. The project
manager must utilize the project change request form, template for change request as well as a
checklist for checking the process map in order to control the changes within the project so that
the progress of the project does not get affected. With the help of the change request form, the
requested changes within the project are verified for making sure that the changes that are
needed will be needed or rejected as per the requirement.
Structured as well as rigorous approach to change management: The project
manager must take the responsibility of structuring the entire procedure into proper set of
deliverables. It is necessary to bring proper structured procedure with proper set of project
deliverables to the people. The utilization of structured approach for properly integrating the
change management with project management generally assists in increasing the accessibility as
well as credibility of the project sponsor, project teams as well as the project managers. In

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addition to this, the project manager must take proper initiative for properly designing,
developing as well as delivering the solution which is embraced, utilized as well as adopted by
the employees. Both the change management as well as project management assists in providing
roper unified approach in order to achieve the desired result as well as outcomes due to the
organizational change.
Proper focus on scope management: The project manager must take the initiative of
managing the scope of the project as scope management is one of the procedure that helps in
refining the activities that is generally necessary to execute and what is not necessary. The
project manager must refine the requirement of changes within the project properly for making
sure whether the changes are required or not which further helps in controlling the change
management procedure. It is also necessary for the project managers to properly understand the
PMBOK guide that reflects the significance of change control management within the project.
Focusing on results: The project manager must take the responsibility of taking the
accountability off delivering the outcomes as well as result so that meaningful integration must
occur. The resources of the change management must define the issues in context to achievement
of the project results for executing the change management procedure. On the other hand, it is
found that if the changes that are demanded does not create any positive result then those
changes must be avoided in the project for successfully completing the work of the project on
time.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from the entire report that proper link between proper management as
well as change control methods are generally necessary as both project management and change

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management are collectively aimed to increase the probability of delivering the planned results
as well as outcomes. It is found that the paper reviews a number of journal articles as well as
scholarly papers that helps in elaborating the importance of the linkage that is generally required
between change control management as well as project management. In addition to this, it is
found that the most proper approach is to combine the change management and project
management together to generate an amalgamated approach for change implementation.
Furthermore, the paper also elaborates number of recommendations to the project manager that
will not only help the project managers in linking the change control procedure and change
management but also helps in reflecting on the steps that are helpful in controlling the change
management within the project so that the project can be expected successfully on time and
within the assumed budget

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References
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Bresnen, M., 2016. Institutional development, divergence and change in the discipline of project
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Cummings, S., Bridgman, T. and Brown, K.G., 2016. Unfreezing change as three steps:
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Heckmann, N., Steger, T. and Dowling, M., 2016. Organizational capacity for change, change
experience, and change project performance. Journal of Business Research, 69(2), pp.777-784.
Hornstein, H.A., 2015. The integration of project management and organizational change
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Appendix
Figure 1: Change management plan