The Project Management Tool Kit: 100 Tips and Techniques for Getting the Job Done Right

Decide and Communicate

Use a systematic process for decision making, and make a prompt business decision for each change. For each potential change, there are four alternatives: approval, approval with modification, deferral, and rejection. For changes that are mandatory (satisfying legal requirements, solving project-threatening problems, responding to significant external factors), the decision is usually easy: accept the change or cancel the project. For discretionary changes, a default decision of “reject,” or at least “defer,” is safest, but the net value of some changes may seem so significant that it will make sense to accept them. When this is the case, verify precisely what is necessary and strip out anything superfluous before approving ...