What is Change Control?

Change control is a formal process used to ensure that changes to a product or system are introduced in a controlled and coordinated manner. It reduces the possibility that unnecessary changes will be introduced to a system without forethought, introducing faults into the system or undoing changes made by other users of software. The goals of a change control procedure usually include minimal disruption to services, reduction in back-out activities, and cost-effective utilization of resources involved in implementing change.

Change control is currently used in a wide variety of products and systems. For Information Technology (IT) systems it is a major aspect of the broader discipline of change management. Typical examples from the computer and network environments are patches to software products, installation of new operating systems, upgrades to network routing tables, or changes to the electrical power systems supporting such infrastructure.

Change control
process is used for identifying and maintaining changes to baselines of a project. Change Control Procedure is a process of creating a formal method for identifying, documenting, evaluating, and communicating all changes to projects. The major roles and responsibilities involved in change control process are Project Manager who is responsible for creating a change-sensitive environment from the beginning of the project by educating project participants about need of change control.

Project team members provide estimate of effort needed to evaluate change request. Evaluates change request to determine potential alternatives for implementing changes, recommend alternatives, and estimate the effort to implement. Project board reviews and approves change request referred from the Project Manager.

The Change Request Form is a formal document
where the requester describes the changes that need to be applied to the system
. The form records the required change as well as recommended changes and estimated costs of making the change. The Change Request Log provides a register of all requested changes to the project. The Project Manager
monitors
the status of Change Request and takes action as necessary to ensure sufficient progress towards acceptance/rejection. The flow of Change control procedure is as follows:

• Submit request for change
• Estimate effort to evaluate change request
• Determine whether change request should be
evaluated
• Analyze change request
• Assess need for escalation
• Make implementation decision