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The Project Plan Should Include a Change Log

September 4, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Management Best Practices, Project Plan Development

The Project Plan Should Include a Change Log (#9 in the seris Effective Planning for Big Projects)
By Timothy Prosser

A change log is a very helpful accessory document, and should be provided with the plan.

With many of the plans I receive, I get a change log that makes it quick and easy to see what changed between the last revision and the current one. This can be a real time-saver. Unfortunately, since maintaining a change log can add perhaps 40% to the time required to update the plan, it is often omitted on plans of the size and complexity of the overstuffed one in my hands. Unfortunately, these are the plans that need it most.

In the end, few people are going to try to read a poorly designed or overstuffed plan, and a plan nobody reads is not going to be of much help to the organization. Most people will glance at it, put it away, and go on “flying by the seats of their pants”, working as they have in the past. Often a “Key Dates List” must be prepared to give people the basic event dates they need, but this will not help them understand their place in the overall plan, the information handoffs involved, or the importance of their work to project activities downstream from them. Frequently the planner must prepare a “Snapshot” document to show a specific subset of the plan’s events. Hopefully this isn’t too difficult in the format you are using, as it is a normal requirement from time to time. Also, much planning time can be eaten up developing “Look-Ahead” documents - basically rolling key date lists - for periodic review meetings. Key date lists, snapshots, and look-ahead documents are sometimes just band-aids to address the problems presented by a too-detailed plan, a poorly designed plan, or a plan developed using a poor choice of software. I use them only when absolutely necessary.

I have considered finding a light table to help me identify changes in the overstuffed plan (I think there is still one in the building somewhere). I could overlay two successive versions of the overstuffed plan with the light shining through them to try to identify what changed, but the plan is unreadable on the largest paper size I have anyway, so that’s a lost cause.

Timothy Prosser - Ann Arbor, MI

Timothy spent the past ten years planning vehicle development programs and tracking parts at a major auto manufacturer in the Detroit area, employed by Integrated Management Systems, Inc. of Ann Arbor, MI (www.imsi-pm.com).

Past experience, in reverse order, includes 3 years writing and supervising technical documentation at a major automotive supplier, 7.5 years engineering computer printers for Unisys Corporation, 3 years of technical work in the image processing and automatic inspection industry, 5 years of network and peripheral service work for ADP, Inc., and 3 years selling wholesale electronic parts.

Education includes an MBA from The University of Michigan (1991), a BS in Geography from Eastern Michigan University (1974), and *countless* training classes by various employers. Timothy has also taught many seminars on project management and various tools involved in the work.

Timothy is a lifetime musician (www.mandolinmaniac.com, www.martianentropyband.com), a 30-year amateur radio operator, and writes a number of blogs including www.timprosserfuturing.wordpress.com.

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