Change Orders

Change orders are used to record, communicate, and track the impact of proposed project or nonproject changes.

Project managers can also associate a task with a change order to efficiently track tasks and analyze change orders. Keep in mind that you can't delete a task that's associated with a change order.

If you implemented Project Financial Management, you can assess the change order impact on the baseline project budget and then automatically adjust the budget when the change is approved. For example, record a change for a specific task and resource and view the overall impact on the project budget. Upon stakeholder approval, implement these adjustments to the project budget automatically.

Here's how project managers can navigate to the Manage Change Orders page:

1. Open the Manage Project Plan page.

2. Open the Actions panel tab and click Manage Change Orders.

Here's how team members can navigate to the Manage Change Orders page:

1. Open the My Work work area.

2. Open the Tasks panel tab and click Manage Change Orders.

User Responsibilities

Project managers and team members can have the following user responsibilities.

User	Responsibilities
Creator	Creates the change order and designates the owner.
Owner	Monitors the progress, resolution, implementation, and closure of a change order. Adds and assigns roles to participants at any stage until the change order is either approved, closed, or canceled. This includes adding a participant for stages that have either been completed in the past or not yet visited. Moves the change order to next or previous logical stage. Removes participants on assigned tasks, if required.
Participant	Performs the assigned tasks. For example, the Reviewer reviews the change order and adds review comments and uploads attachments. An Implementor submits the change order for implementation.
Approver	Updates the progress and provides approval comments.

Stages and Statuses

Owners can control the progress of a change order throughout its lifecycle and change its stages. You can skip all stages except the Approval stage if an approver is added. The status of a change order automatically changes based on its stage.

Here's a table that contains the status, key owner and participant responsibilities, and next available action for each stage of a change order.

Note:

• You can move to a stage only if participants are defined for that stage.

• If you skip a stage, all defined participants for that stage will be removed.

Change Order Stage	Change Order Status	Description	Available Actions
Create	Draft	Stage and status after the creator initiates the change order. Owner enters change order details and assigns participants to assess, review, approve, and implement the change order.	For change owner: Edit change order Cancel change order Close change order Delete change order Submit for impact assessment Submit for review Submit for approval Submit for implementation
Impact Analysis	In Progress	Stage and status after the owner submits the change order for impact assessment. Owner who adds an impact is added as an Assessor by default. Assessors are added as Implementors by default. However, owner can remove them from this role. Assessor adds, edits, or deletes impacts added by self while owner can update impacts of other participants too.	For assessors: Mark complete For change owner: Edit change order Cancel change order Close change order Submit for review Submit for approval Submit for implementation
Review	In Progress	Stage and status after the owner submits the change order for review. Reviewer adds review comments and uploads attachments.	For reviewers: Mark complete For change owner: Edit change order Cancel change order Submit for impact assessment Submit for approval Submit for implementation
Approval	In Progress	Stage and status after the owner submits the change order for approval. Approver updates the progress and provides approval comments. All Approvers must approve the order before the owner can submit the order for implementation or close the order. The owner can't skip an Approver. However, the owner can delete Approvers who don't respond.	For approvers: Approve Reject For change owner: Edit change order Cancel change order Close change order Submit for impact assessment
Approval	Approved	Stage and status after all Approvers approve the change order.	For change owner: Submit for impact assessment Submit for review Submit for implementation Close change order Cancel change order
Approval	Rejected	Stage and status after an Approver rejects the change order. Approver specifies rejection reason and comments.	For change owner: Submit for impact assessment Submit for review Cancel change order
Implementation	Approved	Stage and status after the owner submits the change order for implementation. Implementor updates the comments and attachments. Implementor can automatically generate a new baseline budget version incorporating the change impact when detailed budget impacts are documented in the change order.	For implementor: Mark complete Implement and mark complete (if the change order has a detailed budget impact) For change owner: Submit for impact assessment Submit for review Submit for approval Close change order Cancel change order After automatic implementation of a change order with detailed budget impacts Close Change Order is the only action available.
Close	Completed	Stage and status after the owner closes the change order.	For change owner: Close change order
Cancel	Canceled	Stage and status after the owner cancels the change order. Owner specifies cancellation reason and comments.	For change owner: Cancel change order