Log it, price it, decide it, communicate it. Capture the request in writing, work with the team to assess effort, schedule impact, risk, and what it displaces, then take those options to whoever owns the budget for a decision. Once decided, update the baseline and tell everyone affected. Keep the process light enough that people use it instead of routing around you.
Why interviewers ask this
Interviewers are checking whether you treat change control as governance theater or as a decision tool. They want the sequence right, they want you pricing the displacement rather than only the addition, and they want the decision sitting with the budget holder. A process so heavy that stakeholders bypass it is worse than no process, and mentioning that tradeoff shows you have actually run one in a real organization.
How to structure your answer
- Capture the request in writing before assessing it.
- Price effort, schedule impact, risk, and what it displaces.
- Present options to the budget holder, not a yes or no.
- Re-baseline and tell everyone affected, individually where it matters.
- Keep the process light enough to be used.
Example answer
Log it, price it, decide it, communicate it, and keep the process light enough that people actually use it rather than going around me. So the request goes into the change log in a couple of lines. I take it to the team and get a real assessment: effort, schedule impact, risk, and specifically what comes out if it goes in. Then it goes to whoever holds the budget as a set of options rather than a yes or no question, because sponsors are usually happy to trade once they can see the trade. Once decided I update the baseline and tell everyone affected, including anyone whose work just got displaced, individually. The mistake I made early in my career was treating change control as paperwork to protect myself. It is really a decision making tool, and if it is heavy people route around it and you lose visibility entirely.
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See how it worksFollow-up questions to expect
- Who sits on your change board, and how quickly can it decide?
- How do you handle an urgent change that cannot wait for the board?
- What do you do about changes that come in through the team directly?
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