Exploring the intersection of project and change management

The intersection of change and project management is attracting interest from both practitioners and researchers because, in a rapidly changing and evolving environment, an organization’s ability to change itself has become critical to strategic performance. Much of the responsibility for organizational change rests in the hands of general management but devolution of parts of this responsibility to specific change management roles is occurring and there is widespread acceptance of projects and programs as organizing frameworks for change initiatives. However, the fields of project and change management rest on different foundations and have developed in different directions. Although project and program managers claim to be implementers of change, literature review and qualitative research suggest that current professional standards and certification in project management do not require them to have the full range of competencies required to effectively manage change. The paper reports on results of a quantitative study undertaken to identify the extent to which project, program and change managers use a range of practices associated with project andchange management.