How To Manage Change In Project Management
If you work in management consulting as a SAP Project Manager working within one of the major management consultancies, you probably know all there is to know about change management risk. However, if you are new to the SAP Project Manager role, you will want to pay attention to this and even if you are experienced, you might pick up some useful pointers here.
The Change Control Process You Must Own
Change Management, as a program, is often sub-contracted out, usually to hit a budgetary target during the contract negotiation process. However, there is a secondary level of change management, specifically, the change control process, which cannot be subcontracted out, and that you will need to be aware of throughout your project, if you are to be successful.
In this case, the change management risks you are likely to have to manage is primarily about changes to the SAP HANA system itself. As the PM, you will have to monitor and manage these changes, which are present on virtually every project (all of mine have had changes so far).
Critical Project Change Control Questions You Must Ask and Have Answers To
To do that, you will need to answer the following questions and have a plan on how to address the answers to these questions. This is one of the critical areas to becoming a successful SAP PM.
SAP Project Managers Must Manage Change
- Is there a formal change control process?
This means that you have a formal process, usually involving a template, at a minimum, that includes not only the requested change, but justification for the change, which may include meeting minutes, proposed alternatives, effort estimations, costing information, and other information you will need to evaluate whether the change is required, necessary and feasible given the project cost, schedule and budget. - Does the Change Control Process cover all changes to baselined requirements, design, configuration, development and documentation?
This is especially important to get right. If you have a change control process that makes note of some changes, and not others, and only within a limited context of the project, you, as the Project Manager, will not be able to truly judge the progress of the project as you will be flying blind. - Is there adequate analysis when new requirements are added?
By adequate, have you been able to get both a technical estimation from your consultant(s) to prepare the specific change and overall impact on the project timeline. Remember, changes earlier in the project may cost less, but will have a magnified effect on project timelines. - Are test plans and procedures updated as part of the change process?
If you are using the test management portion of SAP Solution Manager, this is both easy and complex at the same time. There is often an underlying structure to the planned testing, and as you progress up through the various levels of testing (there may be as many five different levels of testing on a typical project). If you are using another test system, or worse, doing it manually, the processes and procedures required may require a higher degree of attention on your part.
Managing SAP Project Changes Can Be Complex
As you can see, managing changes to the SAP software can be a complex process. For the most part, these pointers, which form part of a larger risk management approach to SAP projects, are meant to be brain ticklers. You have to brainstorm, repeatedly, throughout the life of the project to actually identify, manage, and rollout changes to the SAP performance improvement project. Ideally, you will have a risk manager available to bounce ideas off of and to explore areas that are not yet fully clear.
Do you have Change Control Process Techniques you Like To Use?
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