Change Request Form
$9
Watch the walkthrough2:59
Watch the walkthrough2:59
- Word document
- 6 pages
- 8 sections
Changes are not the enemy. Unrecorded changes are. A change that is never priced, never approved, and never written down is how a $480,000 budget quietly turns into a $520,000 one.
This form makes every change visible before it happens. It makes you say what is changing, why, what it costs, what else it touches, and who has the authority to say yes. The filled-in Northwind example, CR-003, is a $38,000 scope add that needed the CFO and the steering committee.
- Eight sections. Description of change, business justification, impact analysis, options considered, recommendation, approval routing, decision record and signatures.
- Impact analysis. Seven areas: scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, resources and compliance, each rated Low, Medium or High with dollars and days.
- Approval routing. PM up to $5,000, Sponsor up to $25,000, CFO and steering above $25,000. Change the limits to match your project. Moving go-live always goes to the Sponsor at minimum.
- Rules of thumb. Never start work before approval, do not split a change to stay under a limit, and show what is left if contingency pays.
Also included in Complete Toolkit ($99), Change and Governance Pack ($19), Money and Scope Control Kit ($39).
Gray bracketed guidance shows what to write in each section. The Northwind example pages can be deleted. Licensed for use by the individual purchaser on their own projects.
See the Change Request Form in action
A quick tour of the document, narrated by Cassandra Taylor, PMP: what goes in each section and what the finished example looks like.
Read the transcript
A budget does not blow up in one big decision. It leaks, one unwritten change at a time. $480,000 quietly becomes $520,000, and your sponsor hears about it in a steering meeting.
I'm Cassandra Taylor, and this is the Change Request Form. A Word template with eight sections, plus a finished example, ready to fill in.
Start with what is changing, and why. Keep each to a short paragraph. In the Northwind example, Margaret Chen asks for a work order module for Facilities and Biomedical. It was never in the baseline scope, and it costs $38,000. The reason is the State audit, due June 30, 2027.
Then size the impact across seven areas. Scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, resources, and compliance. Write None where there is no impact, because a blank row looks like you did not check. The total tells the story. Plus $38,000, fourteen days of effort, and go live unchanged.
Always show your options. Reject, defer, and approve now, side by side, each with a cost, a schedule effect, and a verdict. Approvers decide better when they can see the alternatives. Here, the recommendation is to approve now.
Then route by authority. The project manager approves up to $5,000. The sponsor, up to $25,000. Above that, the CFO and the steering committee. At $38,000, this one goes to David Okafor, then to the February 16 steering meeting.
Record the decision the same day. The funding is the $20,000 contingency, plus $18,000 of new money. The revised budget is $498,000, and contingency is zero. Then collect the signatures, and update your Change Log.
Two rules of thumb. Never start work before the change is approved, because a verbal yes does not cover a cost above $25,000. And never split one big change into small ones to stay under a limit. Approvers notice, and so do auditors.
Make every change visible before it happens. That is how you protect the budget, the schedule, and your credibility. Add the Change Request Form to your cart, and keep every change on the record.
What's inside
Pages
How to use on page 1, the blank form on pages 2 and 3, and the Northwind CR-003 example on pages 4 to 6.
Works with
Log each request in the Change Log.
Options
Always include reject and defer next to the change itself.