Change Control Board: The Decision Maker in Change Management

Changes are inevitable during the project life cycle. In order to minimize the negative effects of the changes, a proper change management plan should be implemented by the project manager. If you want to learn more about change management processes, you can find the further information, in the PMP certification courses, because this is a really important aspect of project integration management. All of these change requests are evaluated by change control board. We will give more details about the board in this article.

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A proper PMP exam training will guide you to obtain a good knowledge about changes in project management. Because without assessing the change requests according to the change management framework, any project will risk failing.

What is Integrated Change Control?

Before going into the details of the change control board, let’s briefly define the integrated change control process. The changes happen during the project, and if they are not managed properly, their small impacts can lead to big risks. And this process ensures the successful change management, from the implementation until the closure of the change. Where does change control board fits in this process? As we mentioned, these changes are evaluated and then, approved or rejected by the board. So the board gets the final say in this process.

What are the responsibilities of Change Control Board?

Change control board is abbreviated as CCB. Many projects have a Change Control Board. Because as the project will receive change requests and these must be evaluated by the change control board.

The board is responsible for reviewing and analyzing change requests. Once a change request is submitted, this is analyzed by the CCB. Impacts of the change on the project must also be assessed. For instance, a new requirement coming from the customer might require additional 3 weeks’ time to develop and $50,000 cost to fund the implementation. The board should assess and analyze this requirement and implement the change accordingly. 

Some technical impacts can be assessed and reviewed by the change control board as well. For instance, a customer requests that one of its databases be accessible by public users. This might be causing security issues to the company. These kinds of impacts are assessed, analyzed and evaluated by the change control board.

Based on the impacts and alternative solutions to implement the change Change control board approves or rejects changes. Only the changes approved by the change control board can be implemented in a project. After a change is approved, the project manager should reflect the change in the project documents, project management plans and project baselines.

Who is included in the Change Control Board?

Who is included in the CCB, should be documented in the change management plan. The board may include:

• Project Manager
• Experts
• Customer
• Sponsor

These are the people who evaluate the changes and their impacts. Then the change is approved or rejected.