TOPIC: Why have Manage Project Knowledge and Manage Com. no Change Request output?

Hi community,

the only 4 process in PMBOK Guide 7 / PMI Process Groups - Guide (2022) with no "Change requests" output but outputs of "project management plan updates" are:

• Plan Quality Management
• Plan Communications Management
• Manage Project Knowledge
• Manage Communications

For the first two, I understand why these have the output "Project Management Plan updates" and no change requests output. As these two are part of the "Project Management Plan" and therefore executed before the "Project Management Plan" is approved and taken under change control.

But what I don't get is, why the latter ones have no change requests output. These two are processes in the execution phase and changes to any "Project Management Plan" component (as the Project Mgmt Plan is in this phase already approved and therefore under change control), need in my understanding a formal CR?

Is this just a missing output and would need an errata or is it intentionally?

Thanks,
Gerald

Gerald,

Your question is quite insightful, and it addresses an important nuance in PMBOK Guide 7 and the PMI Process Groups Guide (2022). Let's analyze why Manage Project Knowledge and Manage Communications do not have "Change Requests" as an output despite being in the execution phase.

1. Understanding Change Request Generation
Change requests are typically generated when a process identifies a need to alter an approved component of the project management plan or project documents. This often occurs when deviations, risks, or performance issues are identified, prompting formal modifications.

2. Plan Quality & Plan Communications: Pre-Approval Phase
As you correctly pointed out, Plan Quality Management and Plan Communications Management occur before the Project Management Plan is fully approved. Any adjustments to these plans do not require formal change requests since they are not yet under change control.

3. Why is there No Change Request for Manage Project Knowledge?
The Manage Project Knowledge process is mainly about leveraging, sharing, and applying existing knowledge rather than modifying planning baselines. In this case, updates to the project management plan usually involve adding newly gained knowledge to lessons learned registers or knowledge repositories rather than modifying controlled project parameters. Since this process facilitates learning and ensures knowledge is accessible, it does not inherently trigger formal change requests.

4. Why is there No Change Request for Manage Communications?
Manage Communications is about distributing project information to stakeholders as planned. The updates to the project management plan occur when communication strategies evolve based on new insights, such as adding more reporting formats or adjusting the frequency of updates. These refinements generally do not require formal change requests because they do not alter baselines or fundamental elements under strict change control.

5. Intentional or Errata?
This omission of change requests is intentional. The key factor here is that these execution processes focus on implementing pre-approved strategies rather than altering fundamental elements subject to change control.

However, if a major shift in communication or knowledge management fundamentally impacted project scope, cost, or schedule, a change request would be required, but that would likely be initiated by another process, such as Monitor Communications or Control Scope.

6. Final Thought
It seems PMI has differentiated between procedural updates (which can happen within a process) and fundamental plan alterations (which require formal change requests). Thus, the absence of "Change Requests" in these two processes does not appear to be an oversight but rather an intentional distinction.

Hope that helps,

Markus

Gerald,

I'm actually going to contradict you: Both processes in question do in fact have "change requests" as outputs. But only "in spirit". Here's what I mean:

Manage Project Knowledge has "project management plan updates" and "organizational process assets updates" as output. Here we see that it is understood that changes are necessary, but instead of simply saying "we have change requests as output", PMI has decided to be very specific and define which areas of the project could/should be adjusted based on the findings from this process. For Manage Project Knowledge, PMI then clearly states "Any change to the plan goes through the change control process via a change request". In other words, PMI expects us to issue a change request to update the plan. But... why is this statement is missing for organizational process assets updates? Because these are not within the control of the project, so we don't issue a "project change request" for something outside the project.

It's very similar for Manage Communication, where we issue "project document updates", "project plan updates" and "organizational process assets updates". Again, for "project plan updates" the PMBOK clearly states that change requests are needed but not so for the project documents, because they are usually not under change control - for example you can update the issue log without the need for a change request. And again... why is this statement is missing for organizational process assets updates? Because these are not within the control of the project, so we don't issue a "project change request" for something outside the project.