TOPIC: Changes to Project Management Plan

Making changes to the project management plan is part of the Direct and Manage Project Work process or Monitoring and Control process?

Hi Satya,

It's part of the Monitoring and Control process. When your team is executing the plan and working on the deliverables, you need to keep a constant lookout for any potential problems. That’s what the Monitor and Control Project Work process is for. When you find a problem, you can’t just make a change...because what if it’s too expensive, or will take too long? You need to look at how it affects the project constraints—time, cost, scope, resources, risks, and quality—and figure out if it’s worth making the change. That’s what you do in the Perform Integrated Change Control process. After Perform Integrated Change Control, we go back to the Direct and Manage Project Work process to put the approved changes in place.

Hi Rahul
Thanks for reply. If so why project management plan updates was output of Direct & Management process? In PMBOK page 81, it is mentioned as
Issue change requests and implement approved changes into the project's scope, plans, and environment.

In the above line, the word, 'plans' doesn't refer project management plan?

This question is from pmtraining. I opted for Monitoring& Controlling...but author says it is Direct & Management.

Hi Satya,

I apologise, I misread your question. Identifying changes is part of "Monitoring and Control process" but making / implementing them is part of "Direct and Manage Project Work" process (as stated in my previous response).

Let me explain this further - As I mentioned, when your team is executing the plan and working on the deliverables, you need to keep a constant lookout for any potential problems. Here, you let stakeholders know about the changes, and make sure everyone is in the loop with what you’re doing. Next you figure out any changes that have to be made to the plans, and repairs that have to be made to the deliverables. A change control board (CCB) is a group of people—usually including the sponsor—that approves or rejects changes. Any time a change goes through integrated change control, the CCB decides whether or not it should be made. When they approve the change, you send it on to the team to implement.

That's when the "Direct and Manage Project Work" process comes into effect to "put the changes in place" / execute / implement / actually make the changes. That's why it is an output of the process to make / implement the approved changes in the plan.

An easy way to remember this:
Identify - Monitoring and Control process
Make / Implement - Direct and Manage Project Work

Hope this helps.