Purpose

A change control record is crafted early in the project by the project manager or procurement office for the buyer in the project, to acknowledge significant change to major components or elements of project work. It allows for the tracking of changes during the early stages of a project, prior to final vendor selection.

Application

In some procurement efforts, multiple amendments to the original solicitation lead to a need to track those amendments in a single document, supplemental to the original solicitation. The change control record is used by internal buyer personnel as a reference to track what they have changed and how they have changed it. It may also be forwarded to selling organizations to aid in their responses.

Content

The change control record includes a cover page that lists the various revisions, the date(s) on which they occurred, the nature of the revisions, and the authority (individual) who approved them. The cover page is then supported by detailed scope documentation and supporting information on the nature, rationale, and purpose of the change and any related affected clauses or terms within the solicitation.

Approaches

The change  control  record,  ideally,  will  only  have  a  handful  of  revisions addressed. In some instances, however, the documentation may include more than a dozen modifications to the solicitation. In these more substantial documents, the supporting scope documentation should be developed in a consistent fashion for ease of reference.

Considerations

Although the change control record may be the purview of the procurement organization, the project manager should refer to the document regularly during the solicitation phase of a contract relationship. This will encourage a shared understanding between the project manager and the procurement office on how and why changes are being implemented.