Project management versus change management

Project management and change management are often confused. Although both involve managing people and processes (and often work together to meet combined organisational goals), they are different disciplines. According to the Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK® Guide), project management is “the application of knowledge, skills, tools and techniques to meet project requirements”. This really means the process required to move a team or project from one position to another. There are five basic stages of waterfall project management – initiating, planning, executing, controlling and, finally, closing or completing the project. By following these sequential steps, a project manager can organise the many smaller steps and interdependent parts. Of course many projects are now following the Agile methodology which is more suited to today’s software development/digital era.

Project management primarily focuses on the processes and activities needed to complete a project. This is the equivalent of the ‘task’ roles in Benne and Sheats’ Group Roles publication. Change management is like the ‘personal’ roles they identified and revolves around managing the change itself.

Where a project manager will implement the product (e.g. a new software application), the change manager will manage the impact that change has on the people and other processes within the organisation. As you can imagine, this is a far more complex and involved discipline and requires a deep understanding of people.

A project management team can be very insular because its one focus is getting the work finished and the product or service implemented or released into the organisation (often within a timescale or other parameters). They are not required to consider the knock-on effect or consequence of this action – and neither should they be, as it is not their job. Likewise, communication about a project can be kept within the inner circle of a project management team, causing rumours to circulate and assumptions to be made externally. This, in turn, causes anxiety, confusion and resistance from other people in the organisation who may not fully understand the need for the changes or how they will affect them in the long term.

Like the stories we talked about earlier, change management is the conduit between the project and the people whose lives it will impact. Managing this is critical to the success of any change. The aim of any change manager is ultimately to deliver the perfect ending where everyone enjoys the kind of rom com happy-ever-after. The change management process is far more fluid than the five steps of a project management model but it roughly follows this sequence: planning for change, managing change, and reinforcing or strengthening the change. While the two roles are separate and distinct, there should be a close relationship and understanding or a collaborative approach. The change manager should be looking to work with project managers (stakeholders) to help them understand the impact their activities may have and adapt where necessary.