# Changes without a committee, and a decision log > Route every change through one door, write a short impact note in days and money, let a named person decide, and record each decision in a few lines. - Course: [Project Management Without the Bureaucracy: Run One Project from Brief to Closure](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy.md) - Module: Running the work: changes and re-planning - Lesson 25/32, ~24 min - Source: https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/changes-without-a-committee ## Where we are **Alex Tutor:** It's the first week of January. The risk register lives in your Wednesday status, and all the work is running at once: tests, checkout, demo lessons, the landing page. **Alex Tutor:** This module is about running that work: handling changes, planning in short steps to a fixed date, and re-planning when something slips. **Danylo:** Changes, yes. Leo stopped me in the kitchen yesterday: "Add a page where parents see their kid's progress." Is that a yes? **Vira:** And the marketing lead wants a free trial physics lesson for every family on the waiting list. **Alex Tutor:** Two changes, two side doors. Before deciding anything, close the side doors. Every change comes through one door: a short written **change request** to you. > **Exercise:** What does "one door for changes" mean on the physics launch? ## A short impact note **Sofia:** So I write the request down. Then what? **Alex Tutor:** An impact note, five lines at most: what changes, days, money, what else moves, and your recommendation. Ask the people who'd do the work; don't guess for them. **Hanna:** The free trial: each lesson still pays the tutor 430 UAH and costs 31 UAH of video and AI. That's 461 UAH a lesson, and nobody pays for it. **Danylo:** Plus four days of mine for a "trial" booking type. In January, those four days don't exist. **Sofia:** A hundred trial lessons would be 46,100 UAH, nearly all of the 52,000 left under the ceiling, plus four of Danylo's days. > **Exercise:** Put the steps for handling the free-trial request in order. **Alex Tutor:** Before the note: whose numbers go into it? > **Exercise:** Who should supply the days in the impact note for a new "trial" booking type on the site? **Alex Tutor:** Now check the money Hanna will ask about. > **Exercise:** Hanna's figures for a free trial lesson: 430 UAH to the tutor plus 31 UAH of video and AI per lesson. What would **100 trial lessons** cost in UAH? ## Who decides **Vira:** Do we need a meeting of all of us for every change? **Alex Tutor:** No committee. The brief already says who decides: Leo decides changes to the date, the budget ceiling, the out list and the success criteria, in writing, within two working days. **Alex Tutor:** Everything inside those limits is yours. Agree a threshold with Leo once, for example: up to two days of buffer and 10,000 UAH from the reserve, the lead decides and tells him in the status. **Leo:** Fine by me. I don't want to approve a button colour. I do want to hear before someone spends my reserve. > **Exercise:** The physics change rule: Leo, the sponsor, decides in writing on changes to the date, the budget ceiling, the out list and the success criteria, and on anything above the agreed threshold; up to two days of buffer and 10,000 UAH from the reserve, the project lead decides and reports it. Match each request to who decides. ## A decision log, a few lines each **Leo:** I read the note. No free trial before opening; we look at it again in March with real booking data. **Alex Tutor:** Now write it in the **project decision log**. A few lines: date, what was decided, who decided, which options were dropped, why, and what it changes. **Vira:** Why bother? We all heard it. **Alex Tutor:** In February the marketing lead will ask again, and someone new will ask why physics launched without a trial. The answer should be a link, not a meeting. > **Exercise:** Which fields belong in a decision-log entry? Select all that apply. ## When the sponsor uses the side door **Danylo:** And the parents' page Leo asked me for in the kitchen? **Alex Tutor:** Same door. Thank him, write it up as a request, and send him the impact note. The rule protects Leo too: he sees what his idea costs before Danylo spends January on it. **Leo:** Fair. If it's a change, I'll answer the note like anyone else's. **Sofia:** And if Leo doesn't answer within two working days? **Alex Tutor:** Then you call him. Silence isn't a yes, and it isn't a no. Waiting quietly is how a decision gets made by the calendar. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** because Leo is the sponsor, his spoken request to Danylo can go straight into the work without a change note. **Alex Tutor:** One more check on the two-day rule. > **Exercise:** **True or false:** if Leo hasn't answered an impact note within two working days, the project lead may treat the change as approved. ## Your turn: one log entry **Alex Tutor:** Write Leo's decision on the free trial as it would sit in the log. **Hanna:** Put the numbers in. In March I want to know what we didn't spend and why. **Vira:** And the option we dropped. Otherwise someone proposes it again as new. **Sofia:** Five lines, no chat history. > **Exercise:** Write the **decision-log entry** for Leo's decision on the free trial physics lesson. On 8 January Leo said no to a free trial before opening: trial lessons for the 100 families on the waiting list would cost 46,100 UAH of the 52,000 UAH left and four of Danylo's days; the idea comes back in March with real booking data. > **Key points** > > - **One door:** every change request reaches the project lead in writing, whoever asks, the sponsor included. > - **Impact note:** five lines at most: what changes, days, money, what else moves, a recommendation. Costs come from the people who would do the work. > - **A named decider, no committee:** Leo decides the date, the ceiling, the out list and the success criteria within two working days; below an agreed threshold the lead decides and reports. > - **Decision log:** date, decision, who decided, options dropped and why, what it changes. A few lines each. > - Silence is not a decision: chase it. **Alex Tutor:** Next: how to plan the last weeks when the date can't move but the details keep changing. - Previous lesson: [Case: the launch risk register](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/launch-risk-register-case.md) - Next lesson: [A fixed date with weekly iterations](https://productovi.com/courses/project-management-without-bureaucracy/a-fixed-date-with-iterations.md) --- Productovi Learning. Free, no sign-up needed to read.