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UNDERSTANDING
PROJECT
MANAGEMENT
A PRACTICAL
GUIDE
SECOND EDITION
Chapter 12
Managing Disruptions to the Plan:
Issues and Change

Professor: M. Wilson
Term: Fall 2021
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The Project Life Cycle (PLC)

Initiating Planning Executing Closing
Phase Phase Phase Phase
Ch 3. Stakeholder Planning
Ch 11.
Executing, Monitoring, and
Ch 4. Scope Planning Controlling the Plan

Ch 5. Schedule Planning

Ch 2. Ch 6. Budget Planning Ch 12. Ch 15.

Starting the Managing Disruptions to the Closing the
Project Ch 7. Project Team Planning Plan: Issues and Change Project

Ch 8. Quality Planning
Ch 13.
Managing the Human Resources
Ch 9. Risk Planning
Aspects of the Project

Ch 10. Communications Planning

Ch 14. Project Procurement

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Agenda

Managing Project Issues

Managing Project Change

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Managing Disruptions to the Plan

• In a perfect world, the project would “unfold” exactly as planned

• Unfortunately, the world isn’t perfect…
• Instead:
• There are unexpected problems or “issues” that inevitably occur during the
execution of a project
• There are also usually requests for “changes” to be made to the previously
agreed upon project plans
• In order to successfully complete a project, both issues and changes
need to be effectively managed
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Managing Project Issues

Documenting Issues
• For discussion:
• What approaches may be used to shorten the duration
(if needed)?
• Project Issues should be documented in an Issue
Log

Document project issues in an Issue Log.

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Managing Project Issues

Prioritizing Issues
• Once issues are documented in an Issue Log, they may be
sorted or filtered. For example, the Issue Log may be:
• Sorted by Priority
• Filtered to show a selected Status

• For discussion:
• Why would it be important to be able to sort or filter the Issue Log?

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Managing Project Issues

Resolving Issues
• In order to resolve issues, a problem-solving approach should be
used
• The formality of this approach will depend on the size and
complexity of the issue
• The steps in the problem-solving approach are:
1. Fully describe the issue
2. Develop alternative solutions
3. Select the optimal solution
4. Implement the selected solution

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Optional Solution
• For some issues, this is often an informal process
• In some instances, creating decision criteria and weighted averages
may be appropriate. For example:
Cost (20%) Time (30%) Effectiveness (50%)
Score Weighted Score Score Weighted Score Score Weighted Score
Alternative 1 5 1.0 6 1.8 9 4.5
Alternative 2 8 1.6 6 1.8 5 2.5

Alternative 1: 1.0 + 1.8 + 4.5 = 7.3 Alternative 2: 1.6 + 1.8 + 2.5 = 5.9
• For discussion:
• When would weighted averages be used?
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Resolving Issues

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Link to YouTube
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Resolving Issues
• Issues may be resolved either formally (with structured
problem-solving approach) for large/significant issues
or informally for smaller issues
• The Issue Log should be continually updated as issues
are resolved and as new issues arise

Resolve issues in priority order using a systematic

problem-solving approach.
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Managing Project Change

• Project changes are different from project issues because

changes are something that may be done

• The challenge is to develop an approach to considering

possible changes and determining those that should be
made and those that should not be made

• This approach is called a Change Control Process

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Change Control Process

• For changes submitted during the project, the following steps

should be performed:

1. A Change Request form is submitted

2. The impact of the requested change is assessed
3. The change request is approved or rejected
4. If approved, the appropriate planning documents are updated and the
change is carried out

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Managing Project Change

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Link to YouTube
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Managing Project Change

• For each potential change to the project, a Change

Request form is completed
• Each Change Request is reviewed by the Project
Change Committee and either approved or rejected

Resolve project Change Requests by using a change

control process.
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Key Terminology

• Change Control Process

• Change Request
• Issue
• Issue Log

© 2021 Dave C. Barrett

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References
• “Agenda” Slide
• Image: “button-stop-red-cross-warning-31222” by Clker-Free-Vector-Images is licensed by Pixabay
• Image: “refresh-update-icon-reload-renew-525698” by khaase is licensed by Pixabay

© 2021 Dave C. Barrett