Changes can happen at any point of the project management lifecycle.
The easiest way to make managing change on projects less of a headache is to know that it is going to happen and to plan for it. Having strategies in place to deal with changes before they happen is the fastest way to get everyone on board with what is going to be different.

A defined, structured change management process is the best place to start. It tells you what to do if someone suggests that the project should be doing something different to what is currently planned and a good way to avoid project failure.

Look at the change request in detail. You’ll be assessing the impact on:

Schedule
Documentation
Work done to date and work still to do
Budget
Quality measures
Scope
Resource availability.

Change Management Tools
There are a number of change management tools that you can use to make this process easier and more streamlined. I’d recommend:

A checklist or process map that walks people through exactly what they have to do to raise a change to your project scope.
A template change request form. This could be online via an automated workflow.
Let’s look at what goes into a project change request next.