PMP Practice: Communicate Change Status

When a change has been formally approved through the change control process, the project manager must immediately update all affected project documents to maintain configuration integrity and prevent the team from working with outdated information. This is critical in predictive projects where baseline documentation guides execution. The scenario reveals team members are already working from outdated documents, creating immediate risk of rework, errors, and miscommunication. Proper document control requires updating the source documents, implementing version control, distributing current versions, and archiving superseded ones. This ensures the entire team has accurate, consistent information and maintains traceability of what changed and when. Delaying updates or using workarounds like addendums or verbal notifications creates confusion, increases error risk, and violates configuration management principles that are essential in environments with formal baselines and change control.

**Why not B:** This introduces unnecessary delay and risk. The change is already approved and specifications are known. Waiting until equipment arrival means the team continues working from incorrect documents for weeks or months, increasing the likelihood of errors, rework, and miscommunication. Document updates should happen immediately after change approval to keep execution aligned with decisions.

**Why not C:** This approach creates serious risks and violates proper configuration management. Relying on verbal communication and expecting team members to 'mentally note' differences is unreliable and unprofessional. People will forget details, new team members will lack context, and errors will multiply. Official documents must be the single source of truth. Waiting until closeout means executing the entire project with known incorrect documentation.

**Why not D:** While better than doing nothing, addendums and cross-referencing create unnecessary complexity and opportunity for confusion. Team members must constantly check multiple documents and interpret which information supersedes what. This significantly increases cognitive load and error risk. The proper approach is to update source documents directly so each document contains current, accurate information without requiring cross-referencing or interpretation.