Change Management Overview

PM Compass facilitates the process of requesting a change and having the change approved. The change request can involve adding new activities to a schedule, adding new work packages to a control account, or adding/editing time phased work package costs. The scope of the change is stored in a temporary store and does not affect the source (or live) project before approval. When the change is approved, the source projects (both cost and schedule) are automatically updated. This process provides an efficient way for a CAM to enter the details of the change request and the scheduler, PCA, and other stakeholders to see the effects of the change and either reject or approve the change.

Change request workflows facilitate the process of entering the change and having the change approved; and because the change is in a temporary store, the source projects are not changed until the workflow is approved.

Using Workflow Type Configuration, you can specify several things, for example:

Whether the request is a change to budget or forecast
Whether you are adding/editing activities, or editing the work packages directly
The form and workflow required for approval of the change

There is one history record for each time the workflow status changes. That is, when the workflow is advanced to the next step, or cancelled.

Review the Change Management Process for a detailed description of each step in the change request process.

The default data includes several change request types in the Change Management category. You can use these to access the Change Details View where the originator can make the required changes to the schedule and cost data, and where reviewers and approvers can see the detailed schedule and cost changes. In addition, if the change request causes a delay to other work in the project, the stakeholders are notified.

Before starting a change request, it is important to confirm that the cost and schedule are in sync. See Sync Cobra and Open Plan Before Starting a Change Request for more information.

If the PM Compass project is associated with multiple Open Plan projects, each change request can only contain changes located in a single Open Plan project. All of the control accounts selected on the change request form must be from one Open Plan project.

Default Change Request Types

The Change Management category includes the following default change request types:

Option	Description
Budget Change Request	Use a Budget Change Request to propose budget cost and/or schedule changes including adding activities, work packages, and editing costs.
Forecast Change Request	Use a Forecast Change Request to initiate a cost system-only forecast change request involving multiple control accounts that is then routed to the PCA for approval. Control Account Forecast Change — The Control Account Forecast Change is usually selected as the child workflow for a Forecast Change Request. It is automatically generated for each control account selected on the Forecast Change Request. It contains the cost details for the change amount related to the specific control account. The Control Account Forecast Change does not display in the Navigation menu. It can be seen on the Forecast Change Request Child Workflows tab.
Contract Change Request	Use a Contract Change Request to initiate a change request involving multiple control accounts and route them for approval. Document the proposed cost and/or schedule change, budget request details, justification and other explanative details about the budget change. Control Account Change — The Control Account Change is usually selected as the child workflow for a Contract Change Request. It is automatically generated for each control account selected on the Contract Change Request form. It contains the cost details for the change amount related to the specific control account. The Control Account Change does not display in the Navigation menu. It can be seen on the Contract Change Request Child Workflows tab.
Move Work Package	Use Move Work Package to move work packages to a new control account using a spreadsheet import file and the Move Work Package Cobra process.
Downstream Change	Downstream Change is used to notify stakeholders of changes to other control accounts as the result of a change request. They are automatically created during a change management process that includes editing a schedule. For more information, see The Downstream CAM's are Notified.

The above change request types, in conjunction with the Initial Work Authorization, can be displayed in a dashpart to provide full traceability of project scope by control account over the life of a project.

Before you begin using Change Management, you need to configure the Change Details on Form tab of Workflow Type Configuration. Make sure that you select a valid template project/class and, for a Contract Change, a valid type in the Multiple control accounts: Generate this workflow type field.

In addition, Deltek strongly recommends that you do not delete the default workflows so that you can easily go back if you need to without having to restore anything. Instead, use Administration » Workflow Type Configuration to copy and rename the ones that you want to use.

See Change Management Warnings for information about messages that appear during change request creation, when you start workflow steps, and when you approve a change request.

Change Requests for Non-Schedule / Non-Open Plan Changes

If you have projects connected to a schedule other than Open Plan, or you want to edit cost data without editing activities, you need a special change request that doesn’t allow you to change the schedule from PM Compass. You can use the default workflows, or you can copy and edit an existing change request.

See Non-Schedule / Non-Open Plan Change Requests Overview for more information.

The Change Management category includes the following default change requests for non-schedule / non-Open Plan change requests:

Request Change — Use this to provide all the necessary information, such as proposed change, impact, and other explanative details, to the Project Controls Analyst (PCA) when requesting a change.
Approve Change — The Project Controls Analyst (PCA) creates this after they work with a Control Account Manager (CAM) to plan and price a requested change in a cost management system.

For steps to edit an existing change request type, see Create a Change Request Type for Cobra-Only Changes.

Change Management Integration with Other Products

Change Management integrates with several other products. For specific product information, see Change Management Integration with Other Products.

Grid Columns and Toolbars

All workflow categories in PM Compass share common List View grid columns and toolbars.

There are two toolbars:

List View toolbar — Use this toolbar for tasks such as creating a new workflow or selecting a workflow step action.
Form View toolbar — Use this toolbar for tasks such as starting workflow steps or deleting a workflow.