SharePoint 2010 for Project Management, 2nd Edition

Controlling Changes with Workflow

Do you have customers who change their minds halfway through the project and decide to add more to the project scope? How about a key resource who decides to apply a different solution than the one specified? How do you handle such changes?

Change control refers to a set of procedures defining the steps on how project changes are requested, evaluated, and addressed. These changes typically relate to project scope, budget, or schedule. This procedure is based on effective processes, and the human-based interactions are known as workflows. Automating workflows among the people who participate in a process can improve how that process functions, thereby increasing its efficiency and lowering its error rate.

Having a change control process in place allows the project manager to better control changes that take place. This process can be as simple as requiring that change requests be made by stakeholders and decision approval (or denial) be made by reviewers.

SharePoint comes with the capability to automate human-based processes. In a PMIS, the built-in three-state workflow in SharePoint can be leveraged to automate the change control process. It enables collaboration by automating the movement of documents or list items through a specific sequence of actions. Three-state workflow is available to both SF and SS. In SS, additional workflows are available.

A three-state workflow can be applied to any list or document library. It requires, at the most, three ...