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Project Justification and Change Control

Module description

Business justification drives decision making, so it is essential to assess the potential of a project before committing to significant investments. This module will enable you to have a deeper understanding of justifying a project and to construct robust project proposals that give a clear overview of project benefits and how they relate to broader business objectives. You will learn to evaluate organisational aims to develop and execute strategic projects that add value, identify realistic benefits, propose tangible deliverables, and ensure the ongoing viability and relevance of the project. When projects progress and become more complex, changes are inevitable. This module will also equip you with an understanding of project change control and associated change management models, including practically planning and implementing change. You will learn about the appropriate tools and processes for monitoring and controlling changes in terms of scope, timeline, quality, and cost to avoid potential disruptions in project management.

Module aims - intentions of the module

This module will enable you to develop the skills and knowledge required for successful project justification and change control along the lifecycle of the project. This will be achieved be exploring the importance of successful approaches in ensuring projects are justified properly in the early stage, including the integration of digital technology in project justification processes to enhance analysis and decision-making. Specifically, you will learn to develop business cases for projects, where costs, benefits, scope, time, and multifaceted requirements are extensively considered, by interactive case studies or simulation exercises. You will also learn how project stakeholders request, evaluate, implement, and control potential changes within a project. Once completed, you will be able to recognise your own skills and the roles you can perform in bringing a successfully project justification for consideration, as well as the ability to successfully embrace emerging situations and uncertainties through the lifecycle

Intended Learning Outcomes (ILOs)

ILO: Module-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 1. Explain organisational aims to develop viable business cases for projects.
• 2. Apply appropriate processes and tools to manage a project change.

ILO: Discipline-specific skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 3. Critically analyse processes of evaluating project scope, costs, benefits, dependencies, and risks.
• 4. Demonstrate the relevance of a project, how the stakeholders benefit from it, and its potential impacts.
• 5. Critically analyse processes of requesting, managing, implementing, and leading project changes.
• 6. Measure and evaluate project change success factors.

ILO: Personal and key skills

On successfully completing the module you will be able to...

• 7. Engage in debates to challenge the strategic alignment of a project in an organisation.
• 8. Reflect upon recent changes in the global environment and how this may impact on how to manage project changes in future.

Syllabus plan

Typical topics to be included on this module will include:

A. Project Justification:

• Project Business Cases (including common pitfalls and contextual variations)
• Project Scope Management
• Project Requirements Management
• Project Costing and Budgeting
• Project Dependency Management

B. Project Change Control:

• Project Change Leadership
• Project Change Implementation
• Project Change Management Approaches
• Project Change Success Factors
• Project Change Measuring Methods

Learning activities and teaching methods (given in hours of study time)

Details of learning activities and teaching methods

Formative assessment

Summative assessment (% of credit)

Details of summative assessment

Details of re-assessment (where required by referral or deferral)

Re-assessment notes

Deferral – if you miss an assessment for certificated reasons judged acceptable by the Mitigation Committee, you will normally be either deferred in the assessment or an extension may be granted. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of deferral will not be capped and will be treated as it would be if it were your first attempt at the assessment.

Referral – if you have failed the module overall (i.e. a final overall module mark of less than 50%) you will be required to sit a further examination. The mark given for a re-assessment taken as a result of referral will count for 100% of the final mark and will be capped at 50%.

Indicative learning resources - Basic reading

• APM. (2017). Introduction to Managing Change. APM.
• APM. (2017). Planning, Scheduling, Monitoring, and Control. APM
• Meredith, J.R., Shafer, S.M., and Mantel, S.J. (2021). Project Management: A Strategic Managerial Approach (11th ed). Wiley.
• Maylor, H., and Turner, N. (2022). Project Management (5th ed). Pearson.

Indicative learning resources - Web based and electronic resources

• Association of Project Management: www.apm.org.uk
• Project Management Institute: www.pmi.org

Indicative learning resources - Other resources

• APM. (2019). APM Body of Knowledge (7th ed). Association for Project Management.
• PMI. (2021). PMBOK® Guide(7th ed). Project Management Institute.
• Hinde, D. (2018). PRINCE2 Study Guide. Orgtopia.

Key words search

Project Management; Project Change control; Project Control, Project Justification, Organisation Strategy, Business Cases, Project Costs and Benefits