The project manager should have a formal process for managing changes to an IT project, its budget, and schedule. A formal process is necessary because it’s easy to add new items to a project that were not originally budgeted. In project management, this is sometimes called scope creep, which may cause a project to go over budget.
However, often changes are requested by sponsors or stakeholders because of unforeseen or overlooked requirements. Or, more commonly, stakeholders want additional features not included in the original design. And PMs have many ways of implementing a change control system.
A change request form, for example, may describe the change, why the change is needed, in addition to the time, resources, and funding required to implement the change. Since these changes present risk to the project schedule, budget, and timeline it also needs to include how those risks will be mitigated. It should also consider a contingency plan (i.e., a plan B) in the event these changes are rejected by the project sponsor or stakeholders.
All of these changes need to be incorporated into a revised work breakdown structure, revised budget, revised schedule, and revised project plan. Once these changes are communicated to the project sponsors, stakeholders, and team, the project manager should obtain approval and sign off.