Page 11 - ipma italy journal_vol 1_02.2015
P. 11
IPMA ITALY Journal of Applied Project Management
Volume 1 no. 2 (July 2015)
The challenges coming from a change the best scenario, few corrections are
order can be summarized into two requested to be implemented in the
groups: early stage of the project, giving rise to
a change order of limited entity.
a) Pertinent to the new Less frequently, some orders are being
requirements themselves, issued based on a preliminary release
of the project requisition, which then
b) Brought by the context of the undergoes an overall revision at a very
change order. late stage. Cases like this one require a
significant effort to the project
With the first group, we refer to the manager and his team. With the
nature of the change and to the project clock started, contractual
technical ability required to implement activities and offer preparation are to
it. There are variations easily proceed in parallel.
manageable, like a request to In the worst case, to be compliant with
increment the quantity of an item up the new requirements the project
to a number not impacting the should restart, overriding in full or in part
organization capacity. the progress consolidated up to that
Differently, there are changes which moment. A late request like this,
would demand the organization to especially in case of a large set of new
have a broader technical knowledge requirements, may constitute a serious
to evaluate feasibility and impacts. In issue for a team not sufficiently staffed
those cases, it is up to the project or for a small business company.
manager and his organization to Furthermore, in some cases,
evaluate pro and cons in fulfilling the contractual T&C already regulates the
request. deadlines to submit a quotation and/or
Particularly for those companies which the mechanism to settle the change
focus on standard products and order. Such set of rules may facilitate
services, a change order which the negotiation or it might even add a
requires an unprecedented solution layer of difficulty to that, leading to
might not be worth the effort to conflicts and tensions in between the
develop such solution. stakeholders.
We can think about the second group
of influencing factors as to all those 2. A real case
elements that, regardless of what
customer is specifically requiring, may In 2009, one of the most difficult
condition the evaluation of the challenges ever managed by GE Oil &
request, the agreement on the project Gas LNG team came from the
impacts and the implementation of the installation site of an important project
change. located in Papua New Guinea.
As a very first example, we have the A large equipment, including high
timing with which a change is technology goods manufactured by
introduced: depending on when a GE Oil & Gas, had to be shipped and
change is notified, the impacts on the installed in a mountainous area of this
project may be well different, even if
the request is the same. 10
New requirements are often originated
by the awareness that the initial
estimations were not entirely correct. In
