Managing Change Requests – This Is How I Do It With Can Do

Change Requests Are Part of Everyday Project Work – In Our Team Just as Much as With Our Clients

In many workshops or rollouts, the question sooner or later comes up:
“What’s the best way to manage CRs in Can Do?”

That’s why I’m sharing a hands-on look at how I manage change requests – based on my own experience as a project manager.
Which features do I use regularly?
What helps me keep an overview?
And how do I make sure that budget, resources, and timelines stay under control?

Budget Items for Change Requests

For each change request, I create a separate budget item in Can Do. This has two major advantages:

• I can immediately see the additional costs caused by the CR.

• I keep the original project budget clearly separated.

These CR-related budget figures are fully integrated into the project cost plan. I can analyze them by project, work package, or time period – providing an essential basis for controlling and informed decision-making within the project.

Figure 1: Editing Budget Items – Logging a Change Request

Identifying Deviations With Baselines

I rely heavily on baselines to make changes visible.
Before implementing a major change request, I save a project snapshot – and then compare:

• How does the timeline shift?

• What changes occur in resource allocation?

• How do the costs compare?

This way, I can immediately see the impact of a CR – both visually and in tabular form.
I use this regularly to assess deviations in a structured way and communicate them clearly.

Figure 2: Cost and Effort Comparison – Baseline vs. Change Caused by CR

Documentation Directly on the Project Object

I document all key information related to a change request directly on the affected project, work package, or task:

• Justification for the CR

• CR number & approval status

• Responsible persons

• References to external sources (e.g., ticketing system, SharePoint, Confluence)

Can Do offers several options for this:

• Custom fields

• Description fields
  

• History with comments and change tracking

This ensures that everything is well-documented – transparent and traceable.

Analyzing & Reporting Change Requests

Using dashboards in Can Do – or via Power BI – I analyze change requests across multiple projects:

• Root cause

• Status (requested, approved, implemented, etc.)

• Cost and budget impact

• Timeline shifts

This is especially valuable for organization-wide forecasts and KPI evaluations.
It helps identify trends, support informed decision-making, and improve project success management.

Figure 3: Dashboard With Cost and Effort Overview for Change Requests

My Conclusion as a Project Manager

Change requests are part of the game – but they need to be managed properly.
Can Do provides exactly the tools I need for that. No patchwork of Excel sheets, emails, and gut feeling – but a consistent solution for structured CR management:

✔ Dedicated budget items
✔ Unlimited baselines for well-founded comparisons
✔ Detailed, configurable documentation – including external links
✔ Monitoring via dashboards & BI reports

This way, change requests are fully integrated into project management and controlling – transparent, measurable, and manageable.

For me as a project manager, that means:
👉 more clarity,
👉 better communication,
👉 and more stable project success – even when conditions change.