Hi Visalakshmi:
Good day!
Great question! Whenever any change request comes in that affects any of the project baselines, it must go through the change control. The change control procedures should be documented in the project management plan. Who approves the change request? The change control procedure should not only answer this, but also how change request must be treated.
So for your question, if a new feature has been requested, this means a change to the project scope has been requested. This will not only require a change to the project scope baseline, but might have a ripple effect on the other baselines as well. Hence, this change request must go through the change control.
However, if there is a change being requested that is not affecting any of the project baselines, then the project manager has the authority to accept or reject the request. In that case the project manager doesn’t need to go anywhere for approval. For example, if a team member is asking for a few days off, this might delay some of the activities assigned to him. If this delay doesn’t affect the project’s schedule baseline, the project manager has all the authority to approve or reject the request.
The key is the project baselines. If the change request affects the baseline, the PM should pass it through the change control. If not, then it’s the PM’s decision.
Let me know if this helps clarify your doubt.
Regards,
Khurram
