Project vs Change

3 Comments

1. 

   Viliam Mudry 4 years ago
   Very good and very interesting question, Jan. In my opinion – NOT – they are not interchangeable subjects. Many people (mostly laymen) confuse both subjects. There are common elements in both. f.e. should be well planned, should be steered by a „competent“ manager, should be approved by „board“/committee, contain (kind of) risk management. Nevertheless, there are also big differences. A project usually takes much longer time than a change, project scope is wider or more complex than it is at a change. Change management does not belong to project management (in methodology), but a change and change management can be a part of the project execution, when project deliverables influence current environment in operation.
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2. Bram De Backer 4 years ago
   First, what type of change management :). Change management exists as a core discipline as part of project management, i.e. managing change to a running project. Change management can also be an operational change (create a new VM, extend a building with a terrace). It can also be seen as Organizational Change, where you must win over hearts and minds to overcome resistance to a project. In PMP/Prince2 this would be part of Stakeholder Management. Depending on who you talk to, they each have a primary meaning behind the word Change Management. Assuming you talk about Operational Change vs Project Management: they are not interchangeable, but are not mutually exclusive either. You could manage a change like a project. A large-scale change could be (and should be) managed as a project. Also, one man's change is another man's project. A large organization may consider the upgrade of the wireless network of a site as an operational change, but when it gets to the vendor, that vendor will manage it as a project.
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3. Jan Mihalus 4 years ago
   I would vote for the same subject but historicaly developed separately as different managerial disciplines. No matter whether large or small project. Also a simple serving of a cup of coffee can be understood as a project and described using project management CPE techniques. Also the argument that for an owner company an ethernet modification is only an operational change but for its contractor company the same subject represents project is true only in case that the owner company did not implemented project management system into its TQM. If such company already has implemented project management approach into its internal procedures, than such company launch the ethernet modification as a project usually with its own inhouse project manager or project sponsor assigned. Such person is responsible for front-end definition, contracting and managing the project implementation no matter whether the contracted vendors have their own project managers and project organizations.
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