change-request-review

Change Request Review

Shared Reference

Use ../../references/project-management-principles.md for general project management principles. Apply change control, stakeholder communication, risk, and planning sections.

Review Stance

A useful change can still be the wrong change now. Evaluate the tradeoff against project objectives, constraints, risks, and decision rights. Do not approve changes without making the impact explicit.

Workflow

1. Identify requested change, requester, reason, and decision owner.
2. Assess impact on scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, dependencies, stakeholder commitments, and communication.
3. Identify alternatives: reject, defer, split, substitute, or approve with conditions.
4. Recommend decision and approval path.
5. Draft decision log and stakeholder message.

Output

Return:

• Change summary.
• Impact assessment.
• Options considered.
• Recommendation: Approve, Approve with conditions, Reject, Defer, Split, or Escalate.
• Decision owner and approvers.
• Approval conditions.
• Required plan, risk, or communication updates.
• Decision log entry.
• Stakeholder message draft.

Common Failure Modes

• Evaluating change only by value, not tradeoff.
• No decision owner.
• Impact on dependencies or communication is missed.
• Approved change does not update plan or status.
• Rejecting a change without explaining alternatives.

Quality Bar

The review should make the decision defensible and show what must change in the project plan if the request is approved.