What is Integrated Change Control? 

Integrated change control is a systematic reviewing method of analyzing all the project management plans, project documents, change requests, communicated decisions, and managing changes relevant to deliverables. Today, we’ll discuss what is integrated change control; its key elements, configuration management, and guidelines for the change control board.

What is Integrated Change Control? 

The integrated change control comprises reviewing and analyzing all the project management plans, change requests, deliverables, and changes in the project documents, and finding resolution methods for change requests.

The advantage of an integrated change control process is that it allows you to deem the documented changes within the project in an integrated way while analyzing the overall risks of the project. Often, the changes come up on the surface without keeping in mind the overall plans and objectives of the project. The project managers need to perform this process throughout the process.

Key Elements of Integrated Change Control 

Some of the key elements and areas of the integrated change control process are as follows;

CCB (Change Control Board)

The CCB comprises subject specialists, project managers, stakeholders, and various other formal groups of people. They have the obligation of accepting, rejecting, reviewing, and making adjustments within the project. However, the main role and function of CCB are to offer tips and guidelines for managing and implementing the approved changes, analyzing and evaluating CRs, and planning change requests.

Configuration Management

Configuration management comprises recognizing and controlling the physical and functional design composition of the product or service. Some of the key document control tools and software employed by change management is ITIL (information technology infrastructure library). However, it offers strategies to streamline various services relevant to the needs and requirements of the business. It comes down to what resources you have, authority figures making changes, and maintaining a record of changes.

Project Management

The focus of project managers is to satisfy the quality goals, cost, time, scope, and goals of the specific project. They employ strategies, techniques, tools, software, skills, and knowledge to meet the requirements of the project. It is the responsibility of the project manager to inform everyone affected by the CCB-approved changes on time.

Change Management

It is the process of making changes within the product or service in a controlled method within the QMS (quality management system) and IT (information technology). It makes sure that you are reducing the negative effects of the changes. However, the change management would affect the approved decision of CCB, and it plays a significant role in the success of the project and decreasing the risk of failure.

Configuration Management in Integrated Change Control 

The integrated change control process employs configuration management to support and facilitate documentation (physical and functional traits of the project) and moves it further in the decision-making process. ITIL refers to a wide area of references that outline the effective and efficient methods of managing various areas of IT support and delivery system. However, it comprises of following;

• Problem management
• Release management
• Change management
• Asset and configuration management

Businesses and organizations could employ configuration management as a contingency for incident management. However, the incident comprises any unplanned event that would cause disruption and losses in the business processes. Some of the main examples of incident management are as follows;

• Natural disaster
• Data breach
• Terrorist attacks
• Workplace violence
• Product quality issues
• Brand reputation issues on social media platforms
• Supply chain disruptions
• Cybersecurity threats

In order to resolve problems, businesses and organizations employ popular software and tools like BMC Remedy and ServiceNow and they combine it with other systems. The extensive configuration option allows you to choose your application relevant to the needs and requirements of your organization.

Chang Control Board Meeting Guidelines 

Some of the key guidelines for the change control meeting are as follows;

• When you have got a lot of small changes, then it is significant that you should put them together in one change request. It would effectively utilize and manage everyone’s time; you should make sure to keep in mind that the cost of some changes would be zero or near zero.
• Activate automatic approval of those change requests that would have a limited impact on scope, cost, schedule, and timing
• Set up a special protocol to manage change requests in case of an emergency like a natural disaster or something else; you should deal with those items immediately. After managing such issues and problems, you should put changes into action before the next CCB meeting
• Analyze the submitted requests and already approved in order to avoid duplications
• Monitor the reward and risks of every change request and its impact on the organization and the project
• Don’t hesitate to reject the change requests for the smooth running of the operations
• Document change processes like tracking documents and submitting forms are significant because they allow you to track the flow of requests
• Create a list of lessons that you learned from the acceptance and completion of the change initiative

Conclusion: What is Integrated Change Control? 

After an in-depth study of what is integrated change control; we have realized that ICC is highly significant for the change management and control processes. If you are learning about ICC processes, then you should keep in mind the abovementioned guidelines, key areas, and configuration management.