What is a Change Request?
A change request is the formal proposal to modify any project document, deliverable, or baseline. Four flavors: corrective action (bring performance back in line), preventive action (stop a problem before it happens), defect repair (fix a broken deliverable), and updates (changes to plans or documents).
The process follows a strict sequence, and exam questions live on people skipping steps:
1. Evaluate the impact — across all constraints: scope, schedule, cost, quality, risk, resources. Never say yes or no first.
2. Identify options — alternatives, including doing nothing, with their trade-offs.
3. Create the formal change request — in writing, however small the change.
4. Submit it to the CCB (or the approval authority the change management plan names) for the approve/reject decision.
5. If approved: update the baselines and plans — the step people forget.
6. Communicate the decision to affected stakeholders and implement.
7. Verify the implemented change delivered what was intended.
Anyone can raise one; only the change control process approves it. That paper trail is what keeps scope creep out.
Worked example
A contractor discovers the soil under a warehouse foundation needs deeper piles. He can't just start drilling — the site engineer submits a change request with the cost and schedule impact, the owner's CCB approves it, the cost baseline moves, and then the work starts. Skip that sequence and the dispute lands in court a year later.