What is a Change Control Board?

A change control board is a committee that evaluates and prioritizes change requests in the context of projects, operations or service management.

Value

Change requests tend to be political with every team assigning the highest priority to their own submissions. Changes to projects have commercial impacts such as product budgets and schedules. Operational changes can impact the stability of services, disrupt productivity and impact contracts such as service level agreements. As such, it is common for change control boards to defer most changes. Deferred changes can often be addressed by a subsequent project or project phase.

Structure

The structure of a change control board typically reflects the political structure of the project or organization. They may include representatives from major stakeholders, project and operations teams. In some cases, change control boards don't have authority to approve changes that involve significant commercial impacts or risks. In this case, final approvals may rest with an executive team.

Overview: Change Control Board
Function	Change Control
Context	Project Management Operations Service Management
Definition	A committee that evaluates and prioritizes change requests
Also Known As	Change Advisory Board CAB
Related Concepts	Change Requests Change Control Project Management Scope Creep Service Management