Programme Priorities: Change Management

Rev01: Date: 13-Feb-2024

Preamble

A programme is more than just a schedule, a group of staggered bars and pages upon pages of repeated activities. Over the coming weeks, I will share a dozen of my key priorities for developing an effective programme. These have been generated from experience, reflections and guidance received from talented mentors in the past.

I will try to keep the articles short, simple and to the point with the intention to serve as guidance for aspiring planning professionals and those wishing to refine their current methods. Hasan's way is not the only way, so please feel free to message me or leave a comment. I am always keen to learn from others’ insights and experiences.

The first topic of the series is Change Management in a schedule.

Why Do We Capture Change?

One of my mentors, Kevin, advised me never to leave a single gap in the schedule: every void in the Gantt chart must be justified, ergo the 'Change Log', which I now keep in the summary section of the programme.

A lag between 2 linked activities or an increase in an activity’s duration must be justified: something has driven that change and without noting that driver down, it is likely to be forgotten or missed during evaluations.

Capturing change benefits all stakeholders. Tier 2 contractors can benefit by making reasonable claims against Tier 1s, the Tier 1s can hold their ground against the Tier 2s or claim their own damages, and the PMC can explain the circus to the Client.

Furthermore, by capturing changes regularly within the programme and openly sharing with all parties encourages transparency, collaboration and minimises the risk of disputes towards the end of the project or a breakdown of relationship in between. Being true to the McDonald’s principle: clean while you work, or as NEC suggests: resolve disputes as you construct.

How Do We Capture Change?

I remember attending a training session on ‘Change Management in NEC3’ many years ago while I worked as an Engineer at Kier. The session was delivered by its Planning Director, Brian, at a cross-country venue. So, there was great potential for a road trip with a colleague and dinner was paid for too, at a restaurant of my choice. So, why not? Of the many beneficial anecdotes, one phrase stuck with me to this day: “Records, records and records!”

Records for delays and variations etc. are often incorporated within the respective WBSs. For better legibility it is my preference to group all delay events under one WBS (Change Log) with proper description, coding, and logic. This essentially forms an easily extractable tracker of key change events.

Each change event must be easy to understand and logic-linked to the impacted activity, thus closing that unknown gap. If there are supporting information, such as Early Warnings, Project Manager’s Instructions, Request for Information, Non-Conformance Reports etc., these must be identified alongside the change event and logged, ideally as separate activities corresponding to the date of issue / duration of resolution. Where applicable, these can be grouped under a sub-WBS category dedicated to the specific change event, thereby creating a mini-impact programme.

These can be further supported with a spreadsheet log, if need be, to add more detail and context to the scenario. Want to go a step further? Create a folder on a shared drive for each delay and populate corresponding emails, notices, photos, documents etc. collectively as a team. This will save any scurrying around at the 11th hour. To achieve this, however, the Planner needs to have strong character and drive the team to collaborate in populating the information as the project progresses.

Where Will the Information Come From?

Each member of the team is responsible for a specific discipline. The best way to obtain information for the Change Log is to hold weekly collaborative sessions with those respective members to update the programme with progress, and also capture change events concurrently while these are still fresh in their memories. During the meeting, just the change event itself may be recorded, then the relevant correspondences and notices etc. can be populated afterwards. Attending functional meetings voluntarily or keeping such meetings running in the background on Teams etc. also help with identifying and capturing issues early on.

Where to Draw the Line?

Depending on which tier one works in, the Change Log can be as simple as a worded activity only to one that is resource and cost loaded. If a change event leads to a variation and increase in work for a contractor, then those new activities should be populated with cost, materials, and labour to suit. Appropriate coding need to be added to identify these as variations and not to be confused with the baseline quantities. The one instructing the change should also record the same on their side to ensure congruency.

But We are Guilty!

Record it! Use your talent as a planner, coding, filters etc. to remove these during submittals if you are not ready to share sensitive information, but definitely keep the records.

Transparency and integrity are key to professionalism. If money is owed, we must pay, just as if we are owed, we must receive.