MGMT7020 Chap.5 Change Management and Changing Plans
Change Management and Changing Plans
What the evidence says about change
Dvir and Lechler studied 448 projects and found that the positive effect of planning quality on success is almost cancelled by goal changes and plan changes, whose combined effect on customer satisfaction outweighs it.
Managing change in practice
This chapter separates the two kinds of change, reads the study's main paths and total effects, notes its limits, and turns its recommendations into a change control habit: screen goal changes and freeze requirements as early as the technology allows.
Using the study in an argument
The study is useful in conversation because it gives numbers to an intuition.
When asked whether planning matters, you can say that it does, with a positive total effect on customer satisfaction, and then show why changes matter more.
Name the limitations too: the data come from a single retrospective survey in which the same person reported both the planning and the outcome, so causal claims should be made carefully.
Common errors on this topic
A frequent error is to call every change a failure of planning. The study treats both kinds of change as unavoidable and asks how they are managed.
Another is to quote a coefficient without saying what it acts on, which earns little credit compared with stating the effect, the outcome it touches and what it means for how requirements are handled.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Goal changes and plan changes
- 02
Planning quality and how it was measured
- 03
Efficiency versus customer satisfaction
- 04
Total effects from the 448-project study
- 05
Two counter-intuitive findings
- 06
Screening and freezing requirements
Worked example · free
Sort four change requests and decide what to admit
- 1Plan changes: (a) and (c), because they alter how and when the work is done, not what is delivered.
- 1Goal changes: (b) and (d), because they alter what the app delivers to the client.
- 2For (b), screen it with the project owner against the business case; admit it only if essential, and then re-plan cost and time openly.
Key terms
- Goal Change
- A change to what a project must deliver, usually decided by stakeholders.
- Plan Change
- A change to how the work is done that leaves the goals and requirements unchanged.
- Planning Quality
- How well schedule, budget, work packages and key resources are specified before execution.
- Project Efficiency
- Success measured as finishing on schedule and within budget.
Change Management and Changing Plans FAQ
What did Dvir and Lechler find about planning?
Good planning improves success, but its positive total effect on customer satisfaction, +0.39, is outweighed by the combined effect of goal and plan changes, -0.48. The amount of change best separated successful from failed projects.
Why do goal changes do so much damage?
They hit customer satisfaction directly and also force plan changes, so they count twice. Plan changes mainly affect efficiency and had no significant direct effect on customer satisfaction in the study.
What should a project manager do with this evidence?
Screen proposed goal changes and admit only essential ones, freeze requirements as early as the technology allows, invest early in real customer requirements, and secure the people the plan depends on.
How was planning quality measured in the study?
Through items such as whether work packages were defined in the breakdown structure, whether time allowances and slack were known, whether activity dependencies and a detailed budget existed, and whether the demand for key personnel was planned.
Which contextual factors drove changes in the study?
Personnel constraints, parallel projects, technological breakthroughs and technological risk were linked to goal and plan changes, while strategic importance and team experience were linked only to planning quality.
What does it mean to freeze requirements?
To stop accepting changes to requirements or design after an agreed point, so the team can deliver against a stable target. Dvir and Lechler recommend freezing as early as possible, but later when technological uncertainty is high, because freezing too early then forces costly goal changes.
Exam move
Memorise the definitions of the two change types and the headline total effects. Then practise explaining one path in the model, such as planning quality reducing goal changes, in a single sentence. Then link the findings to change control: say who screens a goal change and on what evidence.
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