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134 • Green Project Management

statements to the contrary, green could be the first to go,” says Bas de
Baar of Project Shrink (http://softwareprojects.org), “so watch out!” The
misconception is that by reducing the scope of greenality, project costs
will decrease. As we have pointed out, greenality is free; or rather, by
practicing good greenality management, costs to the project, not only for
greenality, but for resources in general, will be reduced. Bas also points
out that green project management is more “about project managers than
project management.” By this, he means that the control of greenality
really is a human thing and not just a project thing. It is going to come
down to whether or not the project manager—the person—takes control
in situations where greenality is slipping.
A change control system specifically targeted to greenality is essen-
tial, more to protect the project’s greenality than anything else at this
point. We are also aware, however, that the view of greenality is going
to change. More and more project managers will embrace the concept
as it is shown to save and enhance scarce project resources. So, for both
reasons, a change control system for greenality should be established. The
project manager should require that all changes to greenality follow the
change request process. That process provides a written record, and we
recommend that an electronic method be established. The change request
process includes escalation guidelines, which will tell us, depending on
criteria, who in the organization has to approve the request. For instance,
there could be a principle in the change request process that states that if
there is a limited impact on schedule or cost (less than 5%), then the proj-
ect manager can approve that request. The system will include a mecha-
nism for recording change requests, and processes for reviewing the
change, communicating results of the request, tracking changes that are
accepted or put on hold, as well as amending the project plan to include
the changes (see Figure 8.1). The mechanism to record the change request
will include the following information:

• An information section (requester responsibility)
• Tracking number
• Name of requester (could be any stakeholder)
• Description of change
• Impact (including criticality) of change as viewed by the
requester
− Also connect the change to the organization’s EMP assertions
• Any alternatives to change that may have been considered