Change Requests: Implementation Checklist

The following sections provide details you can use to ensure that the system is configured properly for the processing of change requests, and to understand (and change, if needed) the settings that affect the processing workflow.

Implementation Checklist

We recommend that before you initially create change requests, you make sure the needed features have been enabled, settings have been specified, and entities have been created, as summarized in the following checklist.

Project Commitment Checklist

If you want to use the functionality of change requests to manage changes in commitments, make sure that all the needed features have been enabled and settings have been specified, as described in Committed Costs: Implementation Checklist.

Other Settings That Affect the Workflow

You can affect the workflow of managing changes in projects by specifying additional settings as follows:

• By default, the CHANGERST numbering sequence specifies that the change request identifier is an automatically generated numeric string of six digits, such as 000001. To change the format of change request identifiers, adjust the CHANGERST numbering sequence on the Numbering Sequences (CS201010) form or create a new auto-numbered numbering sequence and select this sequence in the Change Request Numbering Sequence box on the General tab (Numbering Sequence section) of the Projects Preferences (PM101000) form. For more information on numbering sequences, see Use of Numbering Sequences.
• To allow users to create change requests by using the Create Change Request command on the More menu of the Projects (PM301000) form, for the numbering sequence used for change requests, clear the Manual Numbering check box in the Summary area of the Numbering Sequences form.
• To make it possible to create a change order for a change request selected on the Change Requests (PM308500) form, select the change order class that supports the two-tier change management in the Default Change Order Class box on the General tab (General Settings section) of the Projects Preferences form. That is, the selected change order class must have the Two-Tier Change Management check box selected on the Change Order Classes (PM203000) form.
  Note:

  Even if the default change order class selected in the project accounting preferences does not support the two-tier change management, you still can add a change request to a change order by creating a change order directly on the Change Orders (PM308000) form, selecting for this change order a change order class that supports the two-tier change management, and adding the change request to the change order.
• To cause the system to automatically select a revenue account group for new estimation lines of a change request if there are multiple account groups of the Income type defined on the Account Groups (PM201000) form, specify the Default Revenue Account Group for account groups of the Expense type in the Summary area of the Account Groups form. For more information on account groups, see Account Groups: General Information.
• To cause the system to automatically select the Creates Commitment check box for a new estimation line with a particular account group selected on the Change Requests form, which results in creation of a commitment based on such an estimation line, select the Creates Commitment check box on the Settings tab of the Account Groups form for this account group. For example, it can be an account group to which you map the expense accounts of the services that a subcontractor usually provides.

With these settings specified, users in your company can process change requests quickly and accurately with a minimum of manual actions.

Validation of Configuration

To make sure that all configuration has been performed correctly, we recommend that you process a change request by performing instructions similar to those described in Change Requests: Process Activity.