Change request form template

No project plan is perfect. Circumstances shift and priorities change over time, and that’s ok. But without the right planning, project changes can lead to serious scope creep and potentially derail your entire project timeline. 

While you can’t predict the future, you can plan how to adjust your project plan when needed. That way, you can take change in stride—knowing that you have a process in place to deal with it. 

That’s where a change request form template comes in. 

What is a change request form? 

A change request form is a structured set of questions stakeholders fill out if they want to make changes to your project plan. These forms ensure you get enough information to determine whether the adjustment is necessary—including the reason for the change, its priority, and the requested implementation date. 

A change request form is part of a larger change control process, which lays out the steps you should take to triage and incorporate change requests into your project. This process helps you reduce scope creep while still being flexible enough to address new, high-priority deliverables. For example, you may need to evaluate costs, risks, and project quality repercussions before deciding to approve and implement a change request. 

What is a change request form template? 

A change request form template is more than just a form—it’s a reusable workflow that helps you translate form submissions into actionable tasks. By providing a form with specific questions for stakeholders to answer, you ensure that you get all the information you need to make an informed decision on whether or not to implement the change. Once the form request is submitted, it automatically creates a task in a project management platform that guides your team through a predefined change control process to evaluate and implement change requests. 

Here’s an example. Imagine one of your stakeholders wants to increase the text size for a new web feature. Instead of sending you an email or a Slack with the request, they fill out the form—which asks them about the relative importance, priority, and impact of this change. Then when they hit submit, a task is automatically created to document the request—along with additional tasks to evaluate the cost, risks, and quality impacts of the change. As a result, your team knows the exact steps they need to take to evaluate new change requests. 

Creating a reusable template for this workflow makes it easy to establish a change control process for every new project. All you need to do is copy the template, fill in the specific details for your project, and start working. 

The benefits of a digital change request form template

Static change request form templates—like Excel spreadsheets or Google Docs—require a lot of work to maintain. You need to make sure stakeholders have access to the form, create a submission process, manually triage requests, and find a way to document which changes are approved or rejected. That’s a lot of clicking around and switching between different apps. 

With a digital change request form template, all that work is automated. You can fill out the form, document requests, and create action items all in the same place. Instead of constantly updating documentation, you can see progress in real time as your team goes through the steps to evaluate, approve, and implement changes to your project plan. 

With a digital change request form template, you can: 

• Automatically generate tasks when stakeholders fill out your change request form.

• Make sure your team has sufficient information to evaluate change requests. 

• See the status of all stakeholder requests in one place. 

• Make it easy for stakeholders to submit change requests. 

• Ensure your team follows a predefined process to evaluate and implement changes. 

• Make sure you get the right approval signatures before implementing changes.

• Help stakeholders understand how you evaluate project change requests. 

• Attach supporting documentation to requests, like screenshots or documents. 

What to include in your change request form template

There are two important components to a change request form template: The form itself and the template you use to document and track form submissions. Let’s start with the form. 

To create your change request form, think of all the information your team needs to know to evaluate each request. For example, your form could include the following fields: 

• Project name

• Requester name

• Description of the change 

• Reason for change

• Priority

• Requested implementation date

Once you create your form, it’s time to create your template. You want your template to mirror the different fields on your form—so you can see all the information stakeholders fill out. To continue the example above, that means your template should include columns to track the requester, change description, reason, priority, and requested implementation date. You can also create custom fields to identify the status of each request—like “requested,” “evaluating,” and “approved.” 

Now that the backbone of your template is in place, you can set up automatic rules—a function that lets you create automatic triggers and actions (i.e., “when X happens, do Y”). The possibilities here are endless—for example, when a new proposed change is added you can automatically add additional tasks to evaluate the cost, risks, and quality impacts of the request. 

Integrated features

• Forms. When someone fills out a Form, it shows up as a new task within an Asana project. By intaking information via a Form, you can standardize the way work gets kicked off, gather the information you need, and ensure no work falls through the cracks. Instead of treating each request as an ad hoc process, create a standardized system and set of questions that everyone has to answer. Or, use branching logic to tailor questions based on a user’s previous answer. Ultimately, Forms help you reduce the time and effort it takes to manage incoming requests so your team can spend more time on the work that matters.

• Automation. Automate manual work so your team spends less time on the busy work and more time on the tasks you hired them for. Rules in Asana function on a basis of triggers and actions—essentially “when X happens, do Y.” Use Rules to automatically assign work, adjust due dates, set custom fields, notify stakeholders, and more. From ad hoc automations to entire workflows, Rules gives your team time back for skilled and strategic work.

• Workflow Builder. Visualize your team’s workflow and simplify collaboration across teams with Workflow Builder. Workflow Builder is a no-code point-and-click tool that helps you visualize and build powerful automated workflows. Easily create effective processes that connect teams across all levels and pillars of your organization. Plus, streamline tasks and keep your teammates in sync by integrating your favorite business apps—like Slack, Adobe Creative Cloud, Salesforce, Zoom, and more—right into your workflows.

• Approvals. Sometimes you don’t just need to complete a task—you need to know if a deliverable is approved or not. Approvals are a special type of task in Asana with options to “Approve,” “Request changes,” or “Reject” the task. That way, task owners get clear instructions on what actions they should take and whether their work has been approved or not. 

Recommended apps

• Google Workplace. Attach files directly to tasks in Asana with the Google Workplace file chooser, which is built into the Asana task pane. Easily attach any My Drive file with just a few clicks.

• Hubspot. Create Asana tasks automatically using HubSpot Workflows. With HubSpot Workflows, you can use all the customer data in HubSpot CRM to create automated processes. This integration enables you to seamlessly hand off work between teams, for example, when deals or tickets close in HubSpot.

• GitHub. Automatically sync GitHub pull request status updates to Asana tasks. Track progress on pull requests and improve cross-functional collaboration between technical and non-technical teams, all from within Asana.

• Jira. Create interactive, connected workflows between technical and business teams to increase visibility around the product development process in real time—all without leaving Asana. Streamline project collaboration and hand offs. Quickly create Jira issues from within Asana so that work passes seamlessly between business and technical teams at the right time. 

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