OSG Docdb 523-v3
October 29, 2012
Document Name
Authors
Change Control Process
OSG Executive Board
The OSG Change Control Process
The purpose of this document is to describe the process for changes in the financial, schedule or technical
scope for the OSG project. To achieve our goal of being a well-managed project, we require a system that
allows for the evaluation of changes leading to explicit decision making and logging for each significant
change; and we require that change management be simple and agile.
The Project Manager is responsible for working with the requestor of the change and the OSG project to
determine the impact and dependencies of a change in financial allocations, schedule and/or technical
deliverables; this change control system is primarily intended to cover the work plans and related areas of
budget which are retained in the OSG document repository. The project manager assists the change sponsor
to then submit the change proposal, if needed, to the OSG Executive Director who makes the decision to
accept or reject the change request in consultation with the OSG Executive Team.
OSG implements a light-weight change control process where agreements can be made rapidly and there is a
record of the decisions made and the impact and dependencies gathered. Change Control records are kept in
the OSG document repository and may be accessed by a named list of OSG staff. The OSG program of
work, budgets, and other significant technical decisions are kept in the OSG document repository; this
change control process assures that these records are kept updated.
We define three levels of change control and explain the authorities assigned for each level:
Level 0
Level 1
Level 2
The change control process is not invoked.
Area Coordinators have authority to decide and inform the Project Manager and
Executive Director after the decision; these changes are logged and recorded in
the OSG Document database.
Area Coordinators present the change request to the Executive Director who
decides and may consult with the Executive Team, as needed. The decision is
returned to the Area Coordinator who is responsible for ensuring that these
changes are logged and recorded in the OSG Document database.
The Project Manager decides the level of a change in consultation with the change sponsor and with the
Area Coordinators who meet weekly. Any member of the ET, Council or an Area Coordinator can request
that the issue be elevated to level 1 or 2; that request will supersede the level designated by the Project
Manager. All changes associated with project budgets and related financial issues require the approval of
the Resource Managers, Executive Director and OSG PI.
OSG Change Control Process
Page 1
Guidelines for Level Thresholds
1.1
Level 0 Threshold
The Change Control Process is not invoked. This applies for changes which do not trigger the Level 1 or
Level 2 threshold. In these cases, the change is recorded by the area coordinator but no approvals are
required. Generally these changes involve minor changes in system capability or small changes to schedules.
1.2
Level 1 Change Control Threshold
The following changes will trigger a Level 1 Change Control Process:
o
Schedule slip of more than 3 months.
o
Significant changes to the technical baseline
1.3
Level 2 Change Control Threshold
The following changes will trigger a Level 2 Change Control Process:
o
Schedule slip of more than 6 months.
o
Plans to offer a new OSG service or discontinue such a service
o
Significant changes to the technical baseline or changes in the OSG performance and scope.
Implementation Method
1. All OSG work plans, budgets, and technical plans (e.g. blueprints) are stored in the OSG document
repository; these are updated at least once a year as the program of work is developed and baselined
for the upcoming interval (typically one year).
2. Any Area Coordinator or the Project Manager or any member of the OSG Executive Team may
request a change to the baselined program of work.
3. The change sponsor consults with the OSG Project Manager to determine the level of change and
implements the needed change management approval process as described above.
4. For level 1 & 2 changes, the appropriate document in the document repository is updated to provide:
1) the change description; 2) the reason for the change; and 3) date of change and how the change
was approved. The updated document is submitted to the project manager who will review the
documentation and submit to the OSG document repository as the permanent record of the change;
each affected document will contain a change log as a separate section.
OSG Change Control Process
Page 2