Change Management

A change request is a document containing a request for any changes in a given project. A change request states what needs to be added but leaves out how the change should be carried out. A change request can be raised by any stake holders or users, it may be internal stakeholder or external stakeholder.

Due to change in market scenario, client expectation, nature of business or improvement in the current project or due to change in external factors like government norms a change request may raise.  Successful change request implementations create more efficient systems that are able to meet the current needs of the business consistently.

A change request is the process for amendment of some changes to be included in current running project. Change requests may be single or many it may be a minor one or a complex one across business projects and may come in before, during or after implementation of a solution.

Role of BA in Change request:

whenever a change request comes from the client, how do you handle a change request by BA is

• A preliminary change assessment should analyse the impact the change request is likely to have on the project schedule, budget, resources, scope, and other existing systems and understand the reason for change, a BA should understand the Stakeholders vision.

• A BA should evaluate the impact of the change, before making decisions to implement or not implement the change request.

• Based on the severity a change request should be prioritized.

• A BA should determine the cost of implementation, estimated duration and the number of resources needed to implement the change.

• Once the analysis is done, the change request form should be presented to the approval team, Store and record the change request as proof of what was requested, after that get signoff on the affected documents.

• Once a change request is approved, the project team needs to be notified and project deliverables need to be updated.

• Regardless of whether you’ve decided to dismiss or implement a change, you need to inform the Stakeholders of its status.

Conclusion: Business analysts as part of what they do, suggest recommendations for improvement that when implemented, lead to changes in the business. They should be involved in the change process from the onset so that they can provide clarity and context to why the perceived need for change might be essential or unnecessary.