Uncontrolled change is one of the biggest foes of a project manager. That’s why a solid change management process can be a project manager’s best friend. Putting this kind of process in place enables you to deliver what the customer has requested, in the timeline required, and within the agreed-upon budget. Without change control, the project scope becomes a moving target and you are at risk of missing one or more of your project success factors. The ability to manage and control change, particularly that of project scope, is a key to reaching goals and a typical performance indicator for a project manager. Project change is inevitable and you must be prepared to deal with it when — not if — it happens. One challenge for project managers is balancing the need to control project change while avoiding undue bureaucracy. The question is: Where is the tipping point? Because every project is unique, the point at which change control stops adding value and turns into red tape will vary from project to project. Some of your stakeholders, or even your project team members, may feel that putting change control in place is your way of avoiding the dreaded scope creep, and that you are unwilling to be flexible and do what is best for your customer and the business. It’s important to dispel this perception. Let them know that what you are doing is exactly the opposite: you are implementing an efficient process for consistently evaluating requested changes. If making the alteration is deemed a good idea, then you’ll have processes in place to respond when needed. To help you respond quickly, a project change management plan describes what happens when deviations occur. It’s not intended to prevent change; rather, its purpose is to outline a process that makes clear how change will be communicated, how decisions will be made, and how the project will adapt accordingly.